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SUBSTITUTES FOR LAWS AND GOVERNMENTS, FOR THE HARMONIOUS 
ADJUSTMENT AND REGULATION OF THE PECUNIARY, INTEL- 
LECTUAL, AND MORAL INTERCOURSE OF MANKIND. 



PROPOSED AS 



ELEMENTS OF NEW SOCIETY. 



BY JOSIAII WARREN. 



NEW YORK: 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS, 

CLINTON HALL, 131 NASSAU STREET. 
Boston, M2 Wasl.ington-St] 1 O O ^5. [London, No. 142 Strand. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 

STEPHEN PEARL ANDREWS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 



STEREOTYPE ASSOCIATION, 

201 William Street. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



•f 



I gladly accept the pleasing task which my friend, Josiah Warren, has consented 
that I shall assume, of editing and presenting to the world, in my own way, his works 
on "Equitable Commerce," which is but another name for what I have denominated, 
in my books upon the same subject, " The Science of Society." The present work 
is the text and basis of all that I have written on the subject, and of more that I 
propose to write. 

The main body of this book was published as far back as 1846. It has now under- 

)Vf, at my request, a revisal by the author, and several important additions have 
■nade, which may give the appearance of anachronism to some of its state- 
To remedy this, I have surrounded some of the larger insertions of new 
r with brackets, to advertise the reader of the fact, that these last are of a 

;r date than the other parts. The work itself is one of the mo6t remarkable ever 
printed. It is a condensed presentation of the most fundamental principles of so- 
cial science ever yet discovered. I do not hesitate to affirm that there is more sci- 
entific tryth, positively new to the world, and immensely important in its bearings 
upon the destiny of mankind, contained in it, than was ever before consigned to the 
same number of pages. I am conscious that I am guilty of no extravagance in pre- 
dicting that such will be the estimate placed by posterity upon the discoveries of 
Mr. Warren. 

In saying this, I have no desire or intention to disparage the labors of other great 
social philosophers. Owen, Fourier, St. Simon, and more, have worthily sought 
to solve the problem of a harmonious human ^ociety ; and although they have all 
failed to discover the true methods of reform, they have done, in the effort to do so, 
other and most valuable work. They have laid bare the vices of the old regime 
with a terrific fidelity. They have, like Carlyle, disgusted mankind with their own 
portraiture. At the same time they have sketched with a potent hand an enchant- 
ing picture of the " golden age of the future," which contrasts in all men's minds 
forcibly, at this day, with the antagonism, the wasteful expenditure of means, the 
ignorance, and crime, and sickness, and squalor, and filA, and wretchedness, and the 
broad and painful but ludicrous diversities of poverty and wealth, and the mercen- 
ary degradation of all classes, which disgrace the existing state of our social organ- 

T 



VI EDITOR S PREFACE. 

ization. Fourier has done even far more than this. His masterly analysis of the 
human passions is an invaluable contribution to man's knowledge of himself. His 
daring but shadowy outline of a science of universal analogy, which would be en- 
titled, if once put fairly upon the firm basis of a known science, to the denomina- 
tion of "The Science of Sciences," is eminently worthy of estimation, if regarded 
as merely suggestive, and stimulating to more sedate and systematic investigations 
in the same direction, and equally dangerous if accepted for what it claims to be — 
an ascertained basis from which to reason in practical science. 

This is not, however, the place to give a general estimate of any of these men. 
What concerns them here relates to their success or failure in discovering the meth- 
ods of successfully placing human society upon a basis «f equity, security, and 
peace — of internal harmony and pi-edominant abundance of all the means of happi- 
ness. That they have proposed all this, as their end, is gratefully recognized as 
true. That they have deeply imbued a large portion of the heart of humanity with 
eager aspiration after such a consummation, is gladly acknowledged. Their influ- 
ence is by no means limited to the number of those who are their professed follow- 
ers. They have aroused the Christian Church, and in some measure brought back 
the religion of humanity, instead of theological dogma, while to them is fairly duo 
the birth of the idea, that the constitution of human society is, like every other de- 
partment of nature, a fitting realm for scientific investigation. Beyond this they 
have either not gone, or have gone in a wrong direction. They have all stumbled 
upon the fatal error of combined interests as the supposed sole method of neutral- 
izing antagonism. They have failed totally to arrive at the simple definition of 
Equity. They have veered either to the right or the left of the exact truth upon 
nearly every question of practical procedure. They ha^e attacked the legitimato 
idea of individual property, or they have erroneously attributed to property the hu- 
man right to participate in the results of human toil. They have begun by attempt- 
ing to regulate men by legislation, instead of trusting to men to regulate themselves 
and their relations to each other by a knowledge of principles. They have resorted to 
contrivances, instead of discovering laws. They have overlaid and smothered the 
Individual in the multiplicity or the complexity of Institutions. 

Some social reformers have sinned more in one and some in another of these re- 
spects. None have avoided this catalogue of errors altogether. Protests will be ut- 
tered against this criticism from various quarters. I am aware it is said, for exam- 
ple, on behalf of Fourier, that he recognized most explicitly the individualities of 
men, as also their sovereign right of each to be the arbiter of his own destiny. It is 
said, that if his scheme were carried fully out, it was expressly intended to end by 
achieving the entire individual freedom of every member of community. Theso 
statements embody simply the truth ; and yet there is a fallacy in reasoning from 
them that the scheme involves either the doctrine of Individuality, or the Sover- 
eignty of the Individual, as practical facts. Individualities have to be crushed, and 
sovereignty has to be abdicated, in order that the scheme may begin to be carried 
out ; and hence its essential self-defeating impracticability. The fallacy in question 



EDITOR S PREFACE. Vll 

is so subtle, and has so strong a hold upon the minds of many of the devotees of 
Fourier, that it needs to be forcibly and aptly illustrated. There is an old legend 
about the devil's attempting to build a chimney by beginning at the top. The 
scheme was plausible, but the practice never worked up to the theory. It was de- 
monstrated that the chimney, if built, would end at the same thing as another 
chimney ; and henco was it not clear that this was just as good a plan of chimney- 
building as any other ? The project failed, nevertheless, for want of success in 
fastening tho first brick ; and so, 

" The best laid schemes of mice and men 
Oft gang awry." 

The relation which all of the predecessors to the discoverer of the Cost Principle, 
in this field of inquiry, bear to him and his labors, is similar, in my estimate, to that 
which the numerous experimenters in the discovery of a mechanical perpetual mo- 
tion, and those who have speculated on the wonderful benefits to result to mankind 
from such an event, would bear to him who should actually detect the existence 
of some new law of physical movement, in accordance with which that mechanical 
miracle should become simply and demonstrably practicable. It is, in fine, the dif- 
ference between laudable endeavor and complete success. 

There is, however, nothing flashy nor superficially attractive in the principles 
propounded by Mr. Warren, nor in the mode of their exhibit — the farthest from it 
in the wofid. They are hard, unpretending, but fundamental truths. They are the 
rocky foundation facts, upon which the whole of what is to be the secure, the ad- 
mirable, the transcendentally beautiful superstructure of regenerate human society 
must rest, if it is to have any foundation at all. Those facts will address themselves 
less favorably, in the early stages of the reform, to the tasteful, the imaginative, and 
the artistic, than to the philosophic and the so-called common-sense mind — less 
favorably to the amateurs than to the connoisseurs in social architecture. Others 
must await patiently the results, with which they will be amply contented in time. 
Those whose mental constitution enables them to pass rapidly and almost unaided 
from the statement of a principle to its manifold applications, will be delighted with 
this little manual of principles by Mr. Warren. The simple, rugged presentation of 
grand revolutionary truths which abound in every succeeding page of this book, 
will be for them an ample storehouse of rich treasure. Men of mere scholastic 
predilections, and those who require or prefer to be facilitated in their appreciation 
of profound philosophical ideas, may find themselves better suited in my own more 
elaborate exposition of the same doctrine, in " The True Constitution of Govern- 
ment," and " Cost the Limit of Price." 

It 6eems to be essential, however, that a work like this, in which new thought is 
eo concentrated as to be almost oppressive to all but the most hardy intellects, 
should be heralded by a strong statement of its worth, by some one who has thor- 
oughly explored its depths, and who can speak of its announcements with more 
freedom than its author. The experiments by which Mr. Warren has been, for a 



viii / editor's preface. 

quarter of a century, fortifying his discoveries, have not been kept secret. The 
principles themselves have been, from time to time, more or less freely explained 
to the public. Even this work, which contains a sufficient statement of the whole 
circle of doctrines, has been, as before 6tated, several years published ; and yet the 
experiments, the principles, and the book have been, it may be almost said, entirely 
overlooked and disappreciated, if we compare the slight estimation they have re- 
ceived with their real value aud importance. If I have been among the first to 
grasp the full significance of these principles, and if, by a somewhat more boisterous 
proclamation of their value, I have begun to attract a broader circle of appreciators 
and lovers of their simplicity and their grandeur, I may, perhaps, claim as much 
merit as the obscure Mormon laborer, whose keener vision was directed by chance 
to the mineral treasures of California, after its gold-bearing soil had been for centu- 
ries trodden under foot, or carelessly turned up by the plow of succeeding genera- 
tions. If, like his, my name shall be forgotten in the aftergrowth of a movement to 
which I may have been instrumental in giving a favorable inception, I shall gladly 
consent to that oblivion which comes from the overshadowing of the individual by 
the greatness of the movement itself. 

Intimately persuaded that in this little book the reflective reader will find the 
elements of a world-wide social revolution — elements imbued with a potency com- 
petent to insure the rapid progress and final prevalence of universal Justice and 
Freedom on earth, I commend it to his careful perusal. 

STEPHEN PEARL ANDREWS. 

New York, May, 1852. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The public are here presented with the results of about twenty-five years of inves- 
tigations and experiments, with a view to a great and radical, yet peaceful change in 
the character of society, by one who felt a deep and absorbing interest, and took an 
active part in the experiments of Communities at New Harmony, during the two 
years of 1825 and 1826, and who, after the total defeat of every modification of those 
plans, which the purest philanthropy and the greatest stretch of ingenuity could de- 
vise, was on the point of abandoning all such enterprises, when anew train of thought 
seemed to throw a sudden flash of light upon our past errors, and to show plainly 
the path to be pursued. But this led directly in the opposite direction to that which 
we had just traveled ! It led to new principles ! to new views, and new modes of 
action. So new and so startling were these principles, and the natural conclusion 
from them, that the discoverer (if we must so call him) dare not attempt to commu- 
nicate them to his most intimate friends, for fear of being accounted "insane;" nor 
would he trust his own reasonings for their accuracy, but resolved to work them 
practically out, step by step, silently watching and studying their operations, and 
trust to results for making an impression upon the public mind, thinking that one 
successful example, at any one point, might extend itself to the circumference of so- 
ciety. But a new impulse is given to the public mind. Goaded on by the irresisti- 
ble necessity of some change in our social condition, men are becoming more tol- 
erant toward new things — more disposed to listen to proposals for alleviation ; but 
short conversations, or public meetings, do not aflford the required opportunities for 
the study of a subject involving all the interests of mankind; and I have come to the 
resolution to endeavor to place it (as far as practicable) upon paper, in a manner that 
it may be studied in detail, in times of undisturbed leisure, where the attention can 
be fixed upon that alone, individually; for nothing short of this can do it justice. 

I have many times sat down to perform the task now before me ; but when I con- 
templated the overwhelming magnitude of the subject— the bewildering complica- 
tion of its different parts — the liability to err, to make wrong impressions through 
the inherent ambiguity of language, and the impossibility of conveying new ideas by 
old words, I have shrunk with fear and trembling from the task, have laid down my 
pen in despair, and returned to the silent, but safe, though tardy, language of experi- 
mental action. This speaks unequivocally to those who see and study it ; but thia 
mode of introduction has its limits, depending on the locality of the experiments, 
and the intellectual capacities and pecuniary resources of those who are within its 
immediate sphere, neither of which may prove sufficient for the establishing of one 
complete example. And, although nineteen years ago a work of this kind would have 
obtained no readers, nor scarcely have been noticed, every class of persons are now 



INTRODUCTION. 



alive to the subject— are aware that something must be done, and are disposed more 
than at any foi mer period to give a work of this kind a candid perusal. Society is 
everywhere waking to the realities of its condition, and plunging into enterprises 
which are sure to end in defeat and disappointment, and to result only in the com 
parative martyrdom of the very best of men and women, who are nobly devoting 
themselves to the holy cause of euifering humanity. With- these views, it would be 
inexcusable — criminal, in my own estimation, to shrink from the necessary respon- 
sibility, and remain silent, while I am convinced that our whole objects can be easily 
attained by a process unknown to them, which may possibly be communicated. 
Not that I can hope to reach the understandings of many by any effusion of words ; 
but, that there are a few isolated individuals scattered through the dreary waste of 
mind, who perhaps can be assembled together by verbal inter- communication, and 
who may set a practical example, that will speak a language which all can com- 
prehend. 

I deem it unnecessary to add any thing to what has been so well said of late, to 
show the imperious necessity of a total change in society's institutions. Almost every 
one now admits — what the few far-seeing and deep-thinking individuals have per- 
ceived in all ages of human institutions — that something is radically wrong some- 
r where ; there has always been a striving after a purer state of existence — a panting 
after an atmosphere never yet breathed in the social state — a clashing between the 
theories and the practices of men — a yearning after practical justice and humanity 
— promised, though never realized in the operations of social institutions. Society 
has been in a 6tate of violence, of revolution and suffering, ever since its first forma- 
tion ; and at this moment the greatest number are about to array themselves against 
the smaller, who have, by some subtle and hidden means, lived luxuriously upon 
their labor without rendering an equivalent. Governments have lost their power 
of governing. Laws have become powerless from their inherent defectiveness and 
their iniquitous perversion ; the grinding power of capital is everywhere felt to be 
fe irresistible by ordinary means ; the right of the strongest begins to be openly ad- 
mitted to a frightful extent, and many of the best minds look forward to an age of 
confusion and violence, with the confidence of despair. The cry of misery and the 
call for remedy are heard from all quarters. We have contemplated suffering in 
different forms till the heart is sick ; and, unless a speedy and effectual remedy be 
applied, would fly from the scenes or shut our eyes upon -them forever. We are not 
A alone in this feeling — the same spirit is abroad, calling for aid, for sympathy, for 
remedy ; and in response to this call, I come at once to our subject — social ref- 
ormation. 

This appears naturally to divide itself into three parts. 

First. A statement of What we wish to accomplish. 

Second. The means to be employed. 

Third. The manner of applying those means. 



PLAN OF THIS WORK. 

I have endeavored to reduce the great object of this work to the form of a def- 
inite problem, and to suggest the means of its solution in their most simple, practi- 
cal form, and have associated each proposition with an initial or number, by which 
the reader can refer to their different illustrations or applications throughout the 
work. Thus, whenever i is placed either at the head of a chapter or in the margin of 
any page, there will be found some practical working out of the legitimate reward 
of labor. 11 refers to the security of person and property. I Points out the illus- 
tration of individuality, etc. There are many important subjects immediately con- 
nected with, though not constituting the social problem or its solution, which are 
referred to under the third class of figures 1, 2, 3, etc. Thus, suppose that the read- 
er feels particular interest in the subject of competition. Let him turn to the con- 
tents, where he will find this marked 4. Now let him refer to any of the margins 
having the figure 4, and immediately opposite the figure he will find some illustra- 
tion of the workings of competition. 

If he wishes to see illustrations of the sovereignty of the individual, he will look in 
the margins for the letter S ; and in a similar manner he will find the illustrations of 
any point of the subject, by referring to its corresponding figure or letter. 



PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED. 

i. The proper, legitimate, and just reward of labor. 

ii. Security of person and property. 

in. The greatest practicable amount of freedom to each in- 
dividual. 

iv. Economy in the production and uses of wealth. 

v. To open the way for each individual to the possession of 
land, and all other natural wealth. 

vi. To make the interests of all to co-operate with and assist 
each other, instead of clashing with and counteracting each other, 

vn. To withdraw the elements of discord, of war, of dis 
trust and repulsion, and to establish a prevailing spirit oi 
peace, order, and social sympathy. 



MEANS OP THE SOLUTION. 
I. Individuality. 

S. Sovereignty of every Individual. 
C. Cost the Limit of Price. 

M. Circulating Medium founded on the Cost of Labor. 
A. Adaptation of the Supply to the Demand. 



I important points illustrated. 

1. Disconnection, division, individuality the principle of order, harmony, and 

progress. 

2. Different interpretations of the same language neutralize all institutions found- 

ed on words. 

3. It is not each other, but our commerce or intercourse with each other, that we have 

to regulate. 
\/ 4. Competition rendered harmless, and becomes a great adjusting and regulating 
power. 

5. Use of capital on the equitable principle. 

6. Valxte being made the basis of price, becomes the principal element of civilized 

cannibalism. * 

7. Power of circumstances over persons illustrated. 

8. Sources of insecurity of person and property. 

^ 9. Illustratious of the origin or necessity for governments. 

10. Division of labor the greatest source of gain to society. 

11. Whatever operates against the division of labor, and exchange or commerce, 

makes against civilization. 

12. Benefits of individual responsibilities illustrated. 

13. Machinery, by the cost, or the equitable principle, made a benefit to all, an in- 

jury to none. 

16. Report of demand or wants, the first step of practical operations. 

17. To those who want employment. 

18. Victims of the present social state — simple justice would do more for them than 

the highest stretch of benevolence ever contemplated. 

19. Co-opebation without combination produced by simple justice. 
22. Subordination which does not violate the natural liberty of man. 

25. Combinations, or " unity of interests," the wrong movement. 
27. Reasons for organizing society without government. 

30. Natural government of consequences, in the place of man-made governments. 

31. Where the consequences fall, there should rest the deciding power. 

33. Simple justice, or Equitable Commerce, would naturally effect all the great ob 
jects aimed at by the best friends of the human race. 
* 37. Value being made the limit of price, stagnates commerce, and retards the prog- 
ress of civilization. 
Education conducted upon equitable principles. (See Appendix.) 
The customary apprenticeships an unnecessary cause of poverty, and a great ob- 
stacle to any improved state of society. (See Appendix.) 



EQUITABLE COMMERCE. 



PAET I. 

WHAT DO WE WISH TO ACCOMPLISH ? OR WHAT CONSTITUTES THE 
SOCIAL PROBLEM. 

There are now various proposed solutions of this problem I 
before the public, which differ more or less from each other ; 
but there are certain points, in which many of them, at least, 
resemble each other, and which now seem to be pressed upon A 
us by our very necessities. Following the demand, therefore, 
of these necessities or wants, rather than any authority, but S 
with all reverence for the freedom of others to differ, I venture 
to state the problem thus — Society wants : 

i. The proper, legitimate, and just reward of labor. 
ii. Security of person and property. 

in. The greatest practicable amount of freedom to each indi- 
vidual. 
iv. Economy in the production and uses of wealth. 
v. To open the way for each individual to the possession of 

land, and all other natural wealth. 
vi. To make the interests of all to co-operaU with and assist 
each other, instead of clashing with and counteracting 
each other. 
vii. To withdraw the elements of discord, of war, of distrust,' 
and repulsion, and to establish a prevailing spirit of 
peace, order, and social sympathy. 
2 



PART II. 

MEANS FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF OUR PROPOSED ENDS. 

The steam-engine is an element of society which has an 
increasing tendency to modify it — Arkwright's spinning ma 
chinery, and all other mechanical discoveries of great magni- 
tude, constitute other elements of new society — they have 
materially changed the condition of the working classes, and 
compelled them, for self-preservation, to call for a radical 
change in the whole fabric of society. Printing was another 
element, indispensable to reasonable and peaceful changes in 
the condition of man. 

Another great element of peace and universal brotherhood, 
has been of late infused into society by the direction of men's 
minds to the influence of surrounding circumstances upon 
human motives, manners, conduct, character, and customs. 

Neurology, and other kindred discoveries of immense mag- 
nitude for the emancipation and elevation of the race, are 
doing this noble work with a certainty of effect that is not to 
be mistaken nor counteracted. 

I do not, therefore, profess to develop here all the elements 
that are or may be at work to produce a new and superior 
condition. Society is a complicated machine, which will not 
work rightly in the absence of some of its necessary parts. 
I propose to supply only such as appear to be wanting ; if, 
indeed, a man can be said to supply that which man never 
Inade, but which are as old as the creation. The first element 
of Equitable Commerce, or rather the foundation of the whole 
subject, is : 



INDIVIDUALITY. 15 

The Study of Individuality, or the Practice of Mentally 
Discriminating, Dividing, Separating, Disconnecting Persons, 
Things, and Events, according to their Individual Peculiar- 
ities. 

Do not be alarmed at the word study, or at the dry and 
abstract form of the heading of this chapter. I shall deal as 
little as possible in the abstract, but subjects of illimitable 
magnitude admit of no other form. The American Declara- 
tion of Independence is an abstraction, and those who are in- 
capable of examining subjects of this character may as well 
lay down the book here and save themselves further trouble ; 
while I invite the few more fortunately constituted to an ex- 
ercise of mind upon which the success of our whole object 
depends, but which constitutes no part of our education, nor 
scarcely of surrounding example. 

The Individualities of which I speak are so deep-seated, so 
subtle, and hidden, that they pass undetected by common ob- 
servation, and almost defy scrutiny itself; and yet, as elec- 
tricity seems to be the life-principle of the Individual, so this 
Individuality seems equally to pervade every thing, and to be 
the life-principle of society. 

The word Individuality furnishes an illustration of itself. 
It assumes different significations in different cases. We 
sometimes use it as a substantive, sometimes as an adjective, 
sometimes as a verb. Different persons understand it differ- 
ently in either form ; and the same person will understand 
and appreciate it differently at different times, according to 
different degrees of development and different states of mind, 
under different circumstances. Such is the indefinite diversity 
that will spring up out of the peculi'arities or Individualities 
of persons, times, and circumstances, when the word is used ; 
and this diversity is inevitable. We can scarcely write a 
phrase that will not be subject to similar diversity of inter- 
pretation, growing out of the subtle individualities of differ- 
ent minds and different states of the same mind. 



16 INDIVIDUALITY. 

This is illustrated or indicated in every one's experience in 
every day life, in all our social intercourse, but particularly 
where the subjects or the words used are indefinite. So con- 
tinually is this demonstrated, that I almost feel that an apol- 
ogy is due for stating it ; but I will apologise by following out 
this individuality farther than common observation reaches. 

" If a sonnet, for example, which has been addressed to 
some idol of the heart, falls into the hands of one under the 
influence of the tender passion, it is sure to be fully appreci- 
ated and pronounced ' beautiful.' To such a one nothing is 
too sentimental ; any thing which tells of the ' trials of the 
heart' — of ' true love' — a ' broken heart.,' is doubly welcome. 
But place the same production before a merchant in the bustle 
of business, and the exclamation would be, 'What stuff! 
What nonsense !' Yet the same man, under different circum- 
stances, would exclaim, * How beautiful ! How true !' " 

The most thoughtful and dignified production may be the 
recipient of censure for want of a kindredness (co-incidence) 
of sentimentality, or the absence of it, on the part of the 
reader. The mind, from various causes, may be totally unfit- 
ted for the thoughts before it. And then again, the mind of 
the most sentimental order, by nature, may be placed under 
circumstances unfavorable to the appreciation of the writer's 
thought; so much so, that the most beautiful creations of 
the most fanciful author may be as " sounding brass and a 
tinkling cymbal," though clothed in the most harmonious 
numbers. How, for instance, can w*e expect any one wearied 
with the toils of the day to peruse a poem, however short, 
with the same pleasure and favorable reception as the man of 
leisure 1 But even the man of taste and leisure may fail 
(nay, often does) to enter into the feelings of the writer ; and 
without feeling, the penning and appreciation of poetry are 
alike out of the question. The shades of meaning which it 
is intended to express are so nice and peculiar, that words 
alone will not communicate them — much depends upon the 
peculiar cast of thought and mood of feeling of the reader at 



INDIVIDUALITY. 17 

the -particular time of perusal. A poet may describe parts 
and personages separately — such as the wood, the stream, the 
flocks, and the pastoral bowers ; but how difficult to describe 
these so as to be appreciated by those who have never beheld, 7 
never admired rural scenery — never known the feeling of 
love ! He will be appreciated only by those who have ex- 
perienced the necessary conditions for appreciation. A reader 
who had " never viewed a river, or a waterfall, or a gloomy 
ravine, amid rock-ribbed mountains, could get no understand- 
ing from a verbal description of them ; while those to whom 
such scenes and feelings were familiar would derive pleasure 
equal or superior to that arising from the contemplation of 
the reality." 

Now all these subtle peculiarities are entirely beyond the 
control of the writer and the reader. They are nature's con- 
stant production — a part of the great law of Individuality, 
which sets at defiance all rules for writing and for reading. 
It rises above all rules, eludes the most careful phraseology, 
and stands the only thing unmoved, unchanged, and uncon- 
querable. 

Again in matters of dress. " People appear differently I 
according both to the lookers-on and their own states of feel- 
ing. Those who once seemed the impersonation of all that 
could charm and captivate, may again appear nothing more 
than ordinary mortals ; and people appear better under some 7 
circumstances than under others, though not seen with charm- 
ed eyes. Some moods of thought shed a glory not its own 
on the plainest face, while others disfigure the finest features ; 7 
and in the right shade and light, and form and color of the 
dress, many a merely good-looking woman appears really 
beautiful. Some know this, and make it their study to fol- 
low it out, while others have an innate perception of the be- 
coming, and appear well, whatever the quality of the dress, I 
when in its form and quality they follow their own tastes, g 
leaving fashion to dictate to those who have no idea of their 
own of • the fitness of things.' " 



18 INDIVIDUALITY. 

I know not who are the writers of the two preceding quota- 
tions, but they are singularly useful in illustrating the point 
under consideration ; while the first shows that individuality 
rises above all rules for writing or interpreting language, the 
latter shows that it sets aside all vulgar authority and rules 
for dress, and sets up the Individual taste and judgment in 
their place. 

The subject of Equitable Commerce has drawn forth many 
remarks and comments very different from each other. One 
says, " he sees nothing in particular in it ;" another said he 
" perceived that it had all the features that a great redeeming 
revolution ought to possess." P. " could see nothing in it but 
indications of insanity." The Rev. Mr. C. pronounced it 
" the result of more wisdom than commonly falls to the lot 
of man." F. saw in it "a design to make a little money y" 
while C, G* and E, censure its author for spending his time 
and wasting his resources in attempts to introduce principles 
which require " more virtue and intelligence to carry them out 
than mankind possess." 

Such is the diversity of conclusions drawn from some of the 
most simple statements of facts, which, to some minds, are 
illustrated in almost every conversation, and in all our daily 
intercourse with each other ! But to contend against this di- 
versity, is to contend against our nature's constant production. 
Such is the subtle and inherent nature of this individuality, 
that it accompanies every one in every thing he does, and any 
attempt to conquer it is like undertaking to walk away from 
his mode of walking, or to run away from his breath — the 
very effort calls it more decidedly into play. 

Out of the indestructibility or inalienability of this Individ- 
uality grows the absolute right of its exercise, or the ab- 
solute SOVEREIGNTY OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL. 

We now come to an important and serious application of 
the facts evolved. 

Words are the principal means of our intellectual inter- 
course, and they form the basis of all our institutions j but 



INDIVIDUALITY. 19 

here again this subtle Individuality sets at nought the pro- 
foundest thoughts and the most careful phraseology. There 
is no certainty of any written laws, or rules, or institutions, 
or verbal precepts being understood in the same manner by 
any number of persons. This Individuality is unconquerable, 
and therefore rises above all institutions. To require con- 
formity in the appreciation of sentiments, or in the interpre- 
tation of language, or uniformity of thought, feeling, or action 
where there is no natural coincidence, is a fundamental error 
in human legislation — a madness that would be only equalled 
by requiring all to possess the same countenance or the same 
stature. 

Individuality thus rising above all prescriptions, all author- 
ity, every one, by the very necessities of nature, IS RAISED 
ABOVE, instead of being under institutions based on language. 
Institutions thus become subordinate to our judgment and subject 
to our convenience; and the hitherto inverted pyramid of human 
affairs thus assumes its true position ! Are you alarmed at 
this sudden plunge into an unknown, an uncultivated region ? 
You are alarmed at your own redemption! After many 
years of patient watchfulness of the world's movements and 
of laborious experiments, we see in this Individuality the germ 
of a future so magnificent, so bright and dazzling, that the eye 
can scarcely look upon it. We see that, as it is both inex- 
pedient and impossible to overcome this Individuality, we must 
conform our institutions to it ! Man-made laws thus become 
suggestive — not tyrannical masters, but useful co-operators. 
Institutions will be " made for man, not man for institutions !" 
Their introduction will be peaceful, and their progress propor- 
tioned to the benefits they confer ! We see by it the violence 
of all disputes and controversies, whether religious, political, 
or domestic, or pecuniary, suddenly neutralised by a power 
as soft and genial as the gentle breath of a beneficent spirit ! 
We see a remedy for the antagonisms of Individuals and of 
Nations ! — a conservative against the decay of Empires ! — a 
check to desolating ambition, and the whole field of human 



20 INDIVIDUALITY. 

enterprise opened for beneficence ! We discover a reasonable 
explanation of the antagonisms between ruled and rulers, be 
tween despotism and liberty ! and we have found the deep 
seated, unseen causes of the political, religious, and pecuniary 
confusion and sufferings of the race, and of the disastrous de- 
feats of Revolutions and reformatory movements. We be- 
hold in Individuality the long-sought principle of order, 
harmony, and progress ! 

We will endeavor to justify the apparent extravagance of 
our announcements by a few familiar illustrations, although 
the complete elucidation of Individuality must be the work 
of time and much more extended opportunities.* 

Individuality, Divisio?i, Disconnection, Disunion, is the Prin- 
ciple of Order, Harmony, and Progress. 

I When one finds his different papers, bills, receipts, orders, 
letters, etc., all in one confused heap, and wishes to restore 
them to order, what does he do but separate, disconnect, divide, 
and disunite them — putting each Individual kind in an Indi- 
vidual place, until all are Individualized ? If a mechanic goes 
to his tool-chest, and finds all in confusion, what does he do to 
restore them to order, but disconnect, divide, separate, indi- 
vidualize them ? 

I It is within every one's experience, that when many things 

1 of any kind are heterogeneously mixed together, separation, 
disconnection, division, Individuality restores them to order, 
but no other process will do it. 

If a multitude of ideas crowd at once upon the mind of a 

| speaker or a writer, what can he do to prevent confusion, but 
divide his subject, disconnect, disunite its parts, giving to each 
an Individual time and place. 

It is this which constitutes the principal element of the very 
highest grade of criticism, as is shown by the foregoing quota- 

* See forthcoming works on practical details. 



INDIVIDUALITY. 21 

# 

tions relative to the various appreciations of language, and senti- 
ment, and dress. 

When two persons are talking at once, there is not suffi- 
cient Individuality in either voice to separate it from the oth- 
er. Both uniting together, they make nothing but confusion. 1 
The efforts of both them and their auditors are thrown away. 
The remedy is obviously to disconnect, to Individualize them. 

The more the letters of an alphabet differ from each other, 
i. e., the more Individuality each possesses, the more efficient 
and perfect are they for the purposes intended. The same is 
true with regard to arithmetical figures, and every thing of 
this kind. 

When we mark a number of things for the purpose of dis- 
tinguishing one from another, we use different marks ; but to 
mark all alike, would only increase the confusion. 

Phonography, a gigantic improvement in letters, which is i 
probably to work a total revolution in literature and book 
education, consists in Individualizing the elements of speech 
and the signs which represent them — giving to every Individ- 
ual element an Individual sign or representative. 

The same is the case with a Mathematical Notation of Mu- 1 
sic (published, though unknown to the public). The elements 
of musical sounds are divided, separated, disunited ; each one 
having its peculiar Individual representative on paper; and 
this alone constitutes the foundation of an improvement for 
the general diffusion of musical knowledge, and in effective 
performance, which will probably at some future day make 
the world wonder at the crudeness and barbarism which, for 
upward of four hundred years, have been allowed to obscure 
and conceal the beauties and powers of this most heavenly ele- 
ment of social intercourse, from the mass of mankind. Musi- 
cal harmony is produced by those sounds only which differ 
from each other. A continuous reiteration of one note, in all j 
respects the same, has no charms for any one. The beats of 
a drum, although the same as to " tune" are not so as to 
stress or accent ; in this respect they differ, and this difference I 



22 INDIVIDUALITY. 

occurring at regular intervals, the strong contrasted with the 
weak, enables the attention to dwell upon them, with more or 
less satisfaction ; but the unremitted repetition of one dull, 
unvarying sound would either not command attention or make 
us run mad. 

It is when the voice or an instrument sounds different 
notes, one after the other, that we obtain melody ; and it is 
only when different notes are sounded together that we pro- 
duce harmony. The key-note, its fifth, its octave, and its tenth, 
when sounded together, produce a delightful chord ; but these 
are all different from each other, and they retain their sep- 
arate Individualities, even while thus associated in the closest 
possible manner ; so that, while all are sounding together, the 
practiced ear can distinguish either from the others. They 
never become combined. They never unite into one sound, 
even in the most complicated, nor in the most enchanting, 
harmonious associations ! If such were the result — if they 
were to loose their individualities in association, and to unite 
into one sound, all musical harmony would be unknown, or be 
suddenly swept from the earth, as social harmony has been by 
violations of the individualities of man. It is to the inde- 
structible Individuality of each note in music that we are in- 
debted for all that we enjoy from this most humanizing art ; 
and it is through a watchful regard to the equally indestructi- 
ble individualities of man, that he is to be indebted for the 
harmony of society. 

Individuality, Definiteness, Disconnection, Division, Disunion 
is the great Principle of Social Harmony, Order, and Prog- 
ress. 

The commencement of constitutional governments was the 
first step of progress in politics, and it was disconnecting, di- 
viding, disuniting the subjects of legislative action from those 
which were reserved sacred to the people. 

The disconnection of Church and State was a master-stroke 



INDIVIDUALITY. 23 

for freedom and harmony. The great moving power— the 
very soul of the Protestant Reformation was, that it left every 
one free to interpret the Scriptures according to his own Indi- 
vidual views. 

[Responsibility must be Individual, or there is no responsi- 
bility at all. 

The directing power, or the lead of every movement must 
be individual, or there is no lead, no order, nothing but con- 
fusion. The lead may be a person or a thing — an idea or a 
principle ; but it must be an Individuality, or it cannot lead ; 
and those who are led must have an individual or similar im- 
pulse, and both that and the lead must coincide or harmonize, 
to insure order and progress. 

The masses in a city, when meeting each other upon the 
side- walk, without any thing to lead to one Individual under- 
standing, may turn out in divers ways to avoid collision. One 
turns to the right, the other to the left, and they both counter- 
act each other ; and both stop, both change again, with the 
same result — no progress — nothing can result but uncertainty 
and confusion, until there is some definite understanding be- 
tween them, which both co-operate to carry out. (Definite- 
ness is attained only by an Individuality of meaning in the 
proposition advanced). Some one Individual suggests through 
the papers that every one turn to the right on meeting anoth- 
er. As it is for the interest, and is the wish of every one to 
avoid collision and delay, their inclinations and interests coin- 
cide with the idea thus thrown out, and the confusion is at an 
end. Here is individuality of purpose, individuality of under- 
standing, individuality in the regulating or governing power, 
or lead, and yet the governing power is not a person, but an 
idea. Therefore, although the lead or governing power must 
be an individuality, it need not necessarily be a person. It is 
sufficient that it is an individuality ; that is, notwithstanding 
that thousands accept the suggestion, it has but one meaning 
to any, and to all ; and hence its success as a regulator. But 
if two suggestions were thrown out at the same time, the one 



24 INDIVIDUALITY. 

proposing to turn to the right, and the other to the left, and no 
one individual understanding were arrived at, and if each one 
had not an interest in avoiding collision, they would neutralize 
each other, and confusion must be the result. Can we not see 
(Democrats as we are) that here may be an explanation of 
the defense of absolutism in governments, for the suppression 
of diversities of opinion, suppression of the freedom of the 
press, etc. % Here is in miniature the grand issue between 
despotism and liberty ! What is the solution ? I answer, the 
right of supreme Individuality must be accorded to every one ; 
and though it is entirely impracticable to exercise this right in 
the present close connections and combinations of society, the 
true business of us all is to invent modes by which all these 
connections and amalgamated interests can be Individualized, 
so that each can exercise his right of individuality at his own 
cost, without involving or counteracting others ; then, that his 
co-operation must not be required in any thing wherein his 
own inclinations do not concur or harmonize with the object in 
view. I admit that this makes it necessary that the interests 
of the individual should harmonize with the public interests ! 
This is entirely impossible upon any principles now known to 
the public, and this explains the motive for the introduction of 
these new Elements of society. 

We propose to throw out such ideas or discoveries as, when 
they come to be examined, may, like any other definite or 
scientific truths, become like the suggestions relative to the 
side-walk, the regulators of the movements of each individual, 
by the coincidence between these suggestions and his interests, 
or self-preservation. 

Blacksto.ne, and other theorists, are fatally mistaken when 
they think they get " one general will" by a concurrence of 
vote. Many influences may decide a vote contrary to the 
feelings and views of the voters ; and, more than this, perhaps 
no two in twenty will understand or appreciate a measure, or 
foresee its consequences alike, even while they are voting for 
it. There may be ten thousand hidden, unconscious diversi- 



INDIVIDUALITY. 25 

ties among the voters which cannot be made manifest till the 
measure comes to be put in practice ; when, perhaps, nine out 
often of the voters will be more or less disappointed, because 
the result does not coincide with their particular, individual 
expectations. 

These inventions are all too short-sighted and too defective 
to be allowed to govern the great interests of mankind ! I 
admit, that when we have once committed the mistake of get- 
ting into too close connections, it is impossible for each to ex- 
ercise his right of Individuality ; that then, perhaps, to be gov- 
erned by the wishes of the greatest number (if we could as- 
certain them !) might be the best expedient ; but it is only an 
expedient, a very imperfect one — dangerous when great in- 
terests are involved, and positively destructive to the security 
of person and property, from the uncertainty of the turning of 
the vote, or of the permanence of the institution resulting from 
it. One man may turn the whole vote, and often for want of 
definiteness (Individuality) in the meaning of the terms of the 
laws, their interpretation and administration are, of necessity, 
left to an individual ; and this is despotism ! The whole pro- 
cess is like traveling in a circle too large to be taken in at a 
glance, but yet, without being aware of it, we travel toward the 
point whence we set out, although we take the first steps in 
the opposite direction! Disconnecting all interests, and al- 
lowing each to be absolute despot or sovereign over his own, at 
his own cost, is the only solution that is worthy of thought. 
Good thinkers never committed a more fatal mistake than in 
expecting harmony from an attempt to overcome individual- 
ity, and in trying to make a state or a nation an " Individu- 
al!" The individuality of each person is perfectly indestructible ! 
A state or a nation is a multitude of indestructible individ- 
ualities, and cannot, by any possibility, be converted into any 
thing else ! The horrid consequences of these monstrous and 
abortive attempts to overcome simple truth and nature, are 
displayed on every page of the world's melancholy history. 
A few instances will illustrate. 

3 



26 INDIVIDUALITY. 

Lamartine, in his admirable history of the first French 
Revolution, says: 

" Among the posthumous notes of Robespierre, were found the fol- 
lowing : « There must be one will ; and this will must be either Re- 
publican or Royalist, all diplomacy is impossi-blc as long aa 

we have not unity of power.'" 

We here see the very root of his policy and the explana- 
tion of his sanguinary career. It was precisely the same root 
from which have sprung all the ancient as well as modern po- 
litical and social fallacies. It was a demand for "unity!" 
" one-ness of mind," "one-ness of action," where coincidence 
was impossible: The demand disregarded all nature's Indi- 
vidualities, demanded the annihilation of all diversity, and 
made dissent a crime ! Therefore, all were criminal by neces- 
sity, for no two had the power to be alike ! The true basis 
for society is exactly the opposite of all this. It is FREE- 
DOM to differ in all things, or the SOVEREIGNTY OF 
EVERY INDIVIDUAL. 

Having the Liberty to differ does not make us differ, but, 
on the Contrary, it is a common ground upon which all can 
meet, a particular in which the feelings of all coincide, and is 
the first true step in social^ harmony. Giving full latitude 
to every experiment (at the cost of the experimenters), brings 
every thing to a test, and insures a harmonious conclusion. 
Among a multitude of untried routes, only one of which is 
right, the more Liberty there is to differ and take different 
routes, the sooner will all come to a harmonious conclusion as 
to the right one ; and this is the only possible mode by which 
the harmonious result aimed at can be attained. Compulsion, 
even upon the right road, will never be harmonious. The 

SOVEREIGNTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL Will be found Oil trial tO be 

indispensiblc to harmony in every step of social reorganization, 
and when this is violated or infringed, then that harmony will 
be sure to be disturbed. 

Robespierre may have carried the old idea a little farther 
than some Republicans, but he carried it no farther than 



INDIVIDUALITY. 27 

the Grecians, the Venetians, and even the ancient and modern 
advocates of Community of property. In all of them, as well 
as in all forms of organized society, the first and great leading 
idea was and is, to sink the Individual in the state or body pol- 
itic ! when nothing short of the very opposite of this, which 
is, Raising every Individual above the state, above in- 
stitutions, ABOVE SYSTEMS, ABOVE MAN-MADE LAWS, Will en- 
able society to take the first successful step toward its har- 
monious adjustment.* 
Lamartine, page 337 : 

"Couthon said, ' Citizens, Capet is accused of great crimes, and in 
my opinion he is guilty. Accused, he must be judged, for eternal jus- 
tice demands that every guilty man shall be condemned. By whom 
shall he be condemned ? By you, whom the Nation has constituted 
the great tribunal of the state.' " 

Here, by a jumble of sounding words, " great crimes," 
''eternal justice," "great tribunal of the state," all of which 
mean nothing whatever but the barbarian imagination of the 
speaker, a phantom is got up called the state, which is made 
to absolve the murderers from the responsibility of the mur- 
der. If this responsibility had rested individually upon Cou- 
thon, where, in truth, the whole of all that he was talking about 
existed, he would have shrunk back from taking the first 
step. But throwing all the responsibility upon the soulless 
phantom called the state, there was no longer any check to 
crime ! This is raising institutions or the state above the In- 
dividual ! 

Again : 

" The family of Louis XVI. being in prison, the municipal guard 
were always present at all their meals and other meetings, and pre- 
vented all confidential conversations ; even their private feelings were 
suppressed (by order of authority). They were ordered not to speak 
in a low voice, but to talk aloud, and in French — any other language 
was forbidden. Madame Elizabeth, having once forgotten this order, 



To common eyes this will appear strange or impracticable—on this point see 



" Practical Details. 



28 INDIVIDUALITY. 

Bpoke a few words in a low tone to her brother (the King), when the 
municipal in authority scolded her violently, and said, ' The secrets 
of tyrants are conspiracies against the people. Speak out !' said he 
4 or be silent — the Nation should hear every thing.' " 

Here again, the Nation, the state was every thing, the In- 
dividual nothing ! The king, his wife, his amiable sister, and 
their children had no rights left ! The Nation, authority, the 
institution, had annihilated all, and a dying sister must not 
speak to a dying brother, but their bleeding hearts must be 
laid bare by heartless authority, and trampled under the feet 
of the horrid monster of the imagination called "the Nation!" 
This is raising the Nation above the individual ! Human insti- 
tutions above Humanity ! The true order is frightfully in- 
S verted ! The individual should be the all, and the Nation 
should be a multitude of sovereign Individuals, or be nothing. 

Again, page 289. Speaking of Louis XVI. in prison, Lam- 
artine says : 

" The uniformity of this life began to change to custom and peace of 
mind. The daily presence of beings mutually beloved (his family was 
with him), their mutual tenderness, more felt since the etiquette of a 
court no longer opposed the effusion of the sentiments of nature." 

The free play of the natural family feelings, even to a king 
in prison, was preferable to the constraint of a court etiquette, 
which is imposed professedly for the ".dignity of the state !" 
This again, is sacrificing the Individual to the state. 

Page 483 : 

" Kobespierre was repudiating the wholesale murders that had dis- 
i graced the Revolution. Marat felt sore under the responsibilty that 
rested on him, and jumping up, shouted aloud, « they were a National 
vengeance.' " 

What would he have done for a scape-goat if the people had 
not been trained in the dogma of the state every thing, the in- 
dividual nothing ! 

An elderly lady in the country, hearing that her daughter 
had been thrust into prison the day before, on suspicion of 



INDIVIDUALITY. 29 

being opposed to the revolution, hastened in dreadful alarm 
to the city, alighted at a hotel, and in her phrensy of grief, 
gave vent to some expressions that were immediately inter- 
preted into disapprobation of the Revolution. She and her 
daughter both met at ten o'clock the next day, for the last 
time in the world, at the guillotine ! 

The Revolution had become the all-in-all — Humanity was 
blotted out. The laws, rules, and edicts of the Revolution 
were above all else — the revolution was the great Juggernaut, 
to which it was thought a virtue to procure victims. This is 
raising Institutions above the Individual ! 

Page 351 : 

1 ' Robespierre himself, in returning in the evening to Duplay's house, 
and conversing on the sentence just passed upon the king, seemed to 
protest against the vote of the Duke of Orleans. « The miserable man.' 
said he, • he was only required to listen to his own heart and make 
himself an exception. He would not or dare not do so.' " 

And why dared not the Duke of Orleans to listen to his 
own individual heart and make himself an exception ? Be- 
cause the public would not sanction it — they knew nothing of 
the right of Individuality. The institution of the Revolution 
had become every thing, the Individual nothing. 

Robespierre said to the National Convention of France : 

" Besides, do you not perceive that by giving up the citizens to the 
Individuality of religion, you kindle the signal of discord in every 
town and village ? Some would have a religion, others would wish for 
none, and they would thus become mutual objects of contempt and 
hatred." 

Why would they have become mutual objects of contempt 
and hatred % Simply because this Individuality was not re- 
cognized as the absolute right of every person, and was not 
known as the great principle of order and harmony. Diver- 
sity could only beget enmity where conformity was demanded t 
Robespierre himself lost his own life in an attempt to enforce 
conformity ! 



30 INDIVIDUALITY. 

Page 369 : 

" As the king was conducted to the guillotine, no insult, no impre- 
cation arose from the multitude. If it had been asked of each of these 
two hundred thousand citizens, actors or spectators in this funeral of 
a living man, ' Must this man, one against all, die ?' not one would 
have replied, ' Yes.' But circumstances were so combined, by the mis- 
fortunes and pressure of the times, that all accomplished, unhesitat- 
ingly, what, isolated, no one would have consented to." 

What plainer evidence do we require to prove that isolated 
or individual responsibilities and actions would constitute the 
true corrective for the enormities that have always been com- 
mitted under the barbarian notion, that something called the 
state, or the law, was superior to humanity, or that institutions 
should rise above the individual, instead of being subordinate 
and useful to the individual. 

Page 254 : 

" Any other man than Robespierre would have felt the influences 
of these reminiscences, and a feeling of generous pity would have 
stolen over his mind .... but Calculation had superseded all natural 
feelings in his mind, and the more he stifled every sentiment of hu- 
manity, the nearer did he, in his own imagination, approach to super- 
human greatness; and the more he endured from the struggle, the 
more persuaded was he of its justice." 

Eobespierre was all this time only consistently sacrificing 
every thing and every body to the phantom in his imagina- 
tion called the republic, the Revolution, or the state ! 

Page 127 : 

" Danton, cruel on the whole, but capable of pity in detail, yielded 
to the solicitations of friendship and the dictates of his own heart, and 
released (on the previous evening) several persons in whose fate he 
had felt an interest. Ordering crimes to be committed through the 
ferocity of system, and not the ferocity of nature, he seemed happy to 
rescue victims from himself." 

How evidently the system had risen above the man ! The 
idea of the absolute inviolability of every person must lead 
and predominate in any movement, or it will proceed in con- 
fusion and end in despair. 



INDIVIDUALITY. 31 

Page 140 : 

" Cazotte was imprisoned separately from his daughter. The judges 
did what assassins shrank from, and Cazotte perished." 

It was the ferocity of system that made the judges worse 
than assassins. The "ferocity of system" commences at the 
point where it begins to rise above man ! 

Page 160 : 

" ' Louis XVI. will lose his head on the scaffold,' wrote Fonfrede to 
his Brothers of Bordeaux. ' The Majority desire it, and Liberty and 
Equality demand it as much as universal justice. The sacrifice is 
great. Condemn a man to death ! My heart revolts at the idea, but 
duty speaks, and I bid my heart be still.' " 

The "ferocity of system" had deluded Fronfrede with 
regard to "duty." The " right of majorities" and of "jus- 
tice !" I understand the first step in justice to be the invio- 
lability of person, whether it be King or Beggar. This is also 
the true foundation of Liberty and " equality." Political 
systems, to the contrary, only prove their fallacy and their 
wickedness. 

Vol. iii., page 288 : 

" The republic was no lonfer a society, but a massacre of con- 
quered men upon a battle-field. The fury of ideas is more implac- £* 
able than the fury of men; for men have heart, and opinion has none. 
Systems are brutal forces, which bewail not even that which they 
crush. As the bullets on a battle-field, they strike without choice, 
without justice, and frustrate the end which was assigned to them. The 
Revolution had belied its doctrine by its tyranny. It stained its right 
by its violence. It dishonored its struggles by its executions." 

Nothing can be more true than these comments on the 
Revolution ; but what is the root of all this ferocity of system ? 
and what is the remedy 1 The root is the erecting of systems 
above Men ! The state above the Individual ! Human laws 
above Humanity ! The Remedy must be the Sovereignty 
of the Individual, at his own cost, preserved through all the . 

ramifications of the social state.* 

* 

* See Practical Details of Equitable Commerce. 



32 INDIVIDUALITY. 

Page 243 : 

" The horror of living had conquered the horror of death. Young 
girls and children begged to fall beside their fathers and kinsfolk thu3 
shot down ; and daily the judges had to refuse the supplications of des- 
pair, imploring the penalty of death, less fearful than that of living. 
Every day they granted or refused these requests. The barbarity of 
these proconsuls did not await crime, but prejudged it in name, educa- 
tion, or rank. They struck in anticipation of the future. They an- 
ticipated years — they immolated infancy for its opinions to come, old age 
for its past opinions, women for the crimes of tenderness and tears. 
Mourning was forbidden as under Tiberius. Many were punished for 
having had a sorrowful countenance or a mourning garb. Nature was 
distorted into an accusation ; and to be pure, it had become necessary 
to repudiate nature. All virtues were reversed in the human heart. 
The Jacobinism of the proconsuls of Lyons had overthrown the in- 
stincts of men ; false patriotism had overthrown humanity." 

In other and shorter terms, the Institutions had over- 

S THROWN THE INDIVIDUAL ! ! 

Vol; iii., page 166 : 

" The Girondists were removed during the night to their last place 
of detention, the Conciergerie, where the Queen was still confined. 
Thus the same roof covered the fallen queen and the men who hurled 
her from her throne on the 10th of August ! The victim of royalty 
and the victims of the Republic." 

Both parties brought to the same end from the same cause ! 
A striking, a melancholy, and impressive lesson to all build- 
ers of political or social institutions ! It matters not what 
form a government assumes on paper — Absolute Despotisms, 
qualified Monarchies, Republics, or Reform combinations, all 
raise the institutions, or an external power, above the indivi- 
dual, and, consequently, all have their victims in their turn, 
or, rather, in one form or another, ALL ARE VICTIMS ! 
The sovereignty of every Individual, or raising the Individual 
above all institutions, and all external power or authority, is 
the only remedy. 

Page 417: 

" The number and barbarity of the executions, the innocence of the 



INDIVIDUALITY. 33 

victims, the distribution of the spoil, the derision of judgment, the 
streams of blood, and the heaps of corpses, had transformed the 
nation into an executioner and the government into a machine of 
murder." 

Whoever studies this era in the world's sad history, as a 
lesson to Mankind, will see that no other result could possibly 
have been attained after having once annihilated all respect 
to the right of Individuality, and made the state policy 
the all in all. From this one great grand error have all or- 
ganized societies of men and women been victimized, in one 
form or another. All social calculations have been frustrated, 
and, up to this moment, anarchy, confusion, and suffering per- 
vades the earth. By this first false step men's minds have 
become inverted, and all men's political and social relations 
are correspondingly deranged. 

The state, the society, the institutions, the body politic, the 
nation, the system, or customs we live in, must not be per- 
mitted to become primary, but must be secondary ! Neither 
man, nor man-made laws or systems, must rise above man ; 
but laws, rules, and institutions, must be subject to man's 
purposes ! Human institutions must not rise above Human- 
ity ! Man must not be distorted to fit institutions, but insti- 
tutions must be made to fit man ! The state, or body politic, 
must result from Individuality, instead of crushing it. If 
we would have a prosperous state, it must result from the 
prosperity of the individuals who compose the* state. Where 
every individual is rich, the state will be rich. Where every 
individual is secure in his person and property, the nation, or 
state, is secure. Where every individual thrives, there will 
be a thriving state or nation. Where every individual should 
do justice, there justice would reign in the state or Nation. 
Where every Individual should be free, there would be a free 
state or a free nation. The liberty, freedom, or sovereignty 
of a state or Nation, must consist of the sovereignty of the in- 
dividuals who compose the state or Nation. But there never 
was a prosperous nation where every individual languished ! 



34 INDIVIDUALITY. 

No rich nation, where the property of all its members was 
consumed in building up national glory ! A state or Na- 
tion, cannot be secure in person and property, where the 
person and property of every Individual is under institutions 
which are liable to unforeseen changes ! There can be no 
just state or Nation, where every individual is ignorant or in- 
different to what constitutes justice ! There can be no free 
state or Nation, where every Individual lives under, instead of 
above, the customs, laws, and institutions of the state or 
Nation ! ! 

An illustration of Individuality, as the great principle of 
order, is seen in any movement of much magnitude, which 
must, of necessity, embrace a great number of parts. A large 
post-office is divided into different departments, each Depart- 
ment having an individual place. There is a place for De- 
livery, a place for Deposit, a place for Females, a place 
for Males, a place for newspapers, a place for unadvertised 
letters, and a place for letters that have been advertised. 
Some of these departments are again subdivided (or Individ- 
ualized). The advertised letters are placed under different 
Alphabetical heads, and different places of delivery are estab- 
lished for one kind of letters, to avoid the confusion of too 
much mixture. One place for the delivery of letters ranging 
from A to D, another for those ranging from D to H, etc., 
and the ultimatum would be to have an individual place for 
the delivery of all letters ranging under any one Individual 
letter of the Alphabet. The perfection would be dividing the 
parts until they were indivisible ; in other words, the perfec- 
tion of order would consist of perfect Individuality. Another 
illustration is seen in an army. The commander-in-chief is 
the Individual leader of the whole. Other officers under him, 
each have the lead of a particular individualized portion of the 
body. Each of these portions is again divided, and an indi- 
vidual has the particular lead of each of these most minute 
subdivisions. A.11 these different leads coincide with each 
other. All this is a beautiful development of order, without 



INDIVIDUALITY. 35 

which nothing could be accomplished ! Only one more step 
is in the same direction wanting ! And this is, that the lead 
which each individual subordinate or soldier has by nature 
within him, should coincide or harmonize with all the other 
leads, as in the post-office, or else, that he should not be re- 
quired to act ! If this would present a check to action, it 
would check only vicious action, and furnish the only corrective 
for that vulgar and criminal ambition that has so uniformly 
desolated and cursed the world. The word " commander''' 
would thfen be changed into the word leader. 

Lamartine, in his History of the French Revolution, vol. 
ii., page 370, says that Lilienhorn, one of the conspiring as- 
sassins of Gustavus, King of Sweden, confessed that he was 
seduced into the crime by the ambition of commanding the Na- 
tional Guard during the tumult that would be likely to follow 
the king's death. 

The eclat attached to commanders, Heroes, etc., is the re- 
sult of ignorance relative to their merits. A whole army of 
commanders-in-chief could do nothing if there were more 
than one commander-in-chief. It makes not so mHch differ- 
ence who is leader ! Great results are attained not so much 
because this or that person is leader, but because there is In- 
dividuality in the lead. Every person is an individual, and 
therefore possesses the essential qualification for a leader / It 
is Individuality, therefore, that is entitled to the eclat, rather 
than the person who happens to become the agent to act it 
out. Now, if this had been generally known, Lilienhorn 
would not have conspired against the life of Gustavus, for the 
prospect of the eclat of commanding the National Guard — 
Gustavus, a peaceful and philosophical friend of justice, might 
not have been assassinated. His influence might have modi- 
fied the conduct of the surrounding powers, and the frightful 
catastrophe of the revolution might have been averted ! Such 
are the magnificent tendencies of a knowledge of Individual- 
ity ; and nature, true to her great purpose, the elevation and 
perfection of the race, is, and always has been, silently, though 



36 INDIVIDUALITY. 

irresistibly at work, counteracting the blunders of her children, 
dividing and subdividing political parties, religious sects, and 
all National, state, and social combinations, and dragging them 
through with their faces stubbornly averted, toward the true, 
harmonious, peaceful, prosperous, happy condition of ultimate 
Individuality. 

Nothing is more common than the remark that " no two 
persons are alike," that ; ' circumstances alter cases," that " we 
must agree to disagree," etc., and yet we are constantly form- 
ing institutions that require us to be alike, which* make no 
allowance for the Individuality of persons or circumstances, 
and which render it necessary for us to agree, and leave us no 
liberty to differ from each other, nor to modify our conduct 
according to circumstances. 

" To every thing there is a season, and time to every pur- 
pose under the heaven : A time to be born and a time to die ; 
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted ; 
a time to kill and a time to heal ; a time to break down and 
a time to build up ; a time to weep and a time to laugh ; a 
time to mourn and a time to dance ; a time to embrace and a 
time to refrain from embracing ; a time to get and a time to 
lose ; a time to keep and a time to cast away ; a time to rend 
and a time to sew ; a time to keep silence and a time to 
speak ; a time to love and a time to hate ; a time of war and 
a time of peace." 

Such is the Individuality of times. 

There is an Individuality of countenance, stature, gait, 
voice, which characterize every one, and each of these pecu 
liarities is inseparable from the person ; he has no power to 
divest himself of them — they constitute parts of his physical 
Individuality; and were it not so, the most inconceivable 
confusion would derange all our social intercourse ! Every 
one would be liable to the same name ! One man would 
be mistaken for another ! Our relations and friends would 
be strangers to us ! " No security of person, of posses- 
sions ! No justice between men ! No distinction between 



INDIVIDUALITY. 37 

friends or foes. All would be mere guess-work or chance, 
and universal confusion would reign triumphant. How 
much, then, are we indebted to Individuality, even in these 
four particulars of physical conformation ! The fact, that 
these peculiarities of each are inseparable from each — not to 
be conquered — not to be divided or separated from each, is 
apparently the only part of social order that man, in his mad 
career of "policy" and expediency, has not overthrown or 
smothered. I have spoken of only four of the peculiarities 
of human character, and if these confer such benefits upon so- 
ciety, what may we not expect on a full development of all 
the capacities, physical, mental, and moral, with which every 
one is, to a greater or less extent, invested ! but no two alike ; 
and if the little intellectual development now extant results 
in an individuality that makes men and women restive and 
ungovernable under the existing institutions, what are we to 
expect for the future ! Not only are no two minds alike 
now, but no one remains the same from one hour to another ! 
Old impressions are becoming obliterated, new ones being 
made — new combinations of old thoughts constantly being 
formed, and old combinations exploded. The surrounding 
atmosphere, the contact of various persons and circumstances, 
all contribute to make us more the mirrors of passing things 
than the possessors of any fixed character, and we have no 
power to be otherwise ; therefore, to require us to be station- 
ary blocks, all of one size, hewn out by laws, institutions, or 
customs, is a monstrous piece of injustice, and it is impossible 
in the very nature of things. 

I have seen a youth, who, from habitual inclination, rejected 
meat as an article of food, in one minute converted into, as it 
were, a ravenous wolf. He jumped at, and seized a raw 
chicken, tore a piece from its leg with his teeth, and chewed 
it with a voracity truly frightful ; but while in the very act, 
in less than a second, he suddenly stopped, and sickened at 
what he had done ! All this was effected by the direction of 
electro-nervous currents upon different parts of the brain by 

4 



38 INDIVIDUALITY. 

7 artificial means ;* but we are apparently surrounded with this 
fluid at all times, and we cannot say beforehand what effects it 
shall produce upon us ! Where, now, is the right in pledging 
ourselves to be consistently of this or that character ! and 
where the right in others to demand of us to conform to their 
modes of thought or action ? and where is the authority for 
human institutions to rise above humanity, and say, with the 
tone of command, "be ye this," or, " be ye that!" "thus 
far shalt thou go, and no farther 1 ?" 
I I saw a youth in a company of twenty-three persons (select- 
7 ed for his known scrupulous regard to the rights of pro- 
perty), in one minute and a half converted into a daring thief. 
He stole money purposely laid in his way before the eyes of 
the whole company, hid the money, and then denied it with 
the boldness and assurance of a hardened professor. In a se- 
cond he was made extremely conscientous, and sunk down with 
grief, shame, remorse, as if he would have gladly hidden him- 
self from himself and all the world in the very depths of the 
grave ; and our most soothing efforts were necessary for his 
relief, assuring him that it was all our work. The scene waP 
extremely affecting. There was scarcely a dry eye in the 
company, and the exclamation was made, " O God ! that law- 
makers could only get the lesson that we have had to-night." 
To what purpose, O legislators, do ye say, " thou shalt not 
steal ?" To what end are all your horrid inventions for punish- 
ment ! Stealing still goes on, and ye only repeat " thou shalt 
not steal," and still punish, even though you said at first that 
punishment was a remedy ! Ye have, no remedy ! but only 
inflict tenfold more evils by your abortive attempts to over 
come effects without consulting causes, or opening your eyes 
and ears to explanations ! Our security against fire and gun- 
powder is in our knowledge of their natures and their incal- 
culable modes of action, which knowledge raises us above 



See Dr. Joseph Buchanan's discoveries in Neurology 



INDIVIDUALITY. 39 

their dangers, and renders them useful and comparatively 
harmless. Our remedies and securities against social evils 
are in our knowledge of our own. natures, our inevitable 
modes of action, our true positions with regard to each other, 
and to our institutions. Even man-made laws, rules, pre- 
cepts, dogmas, counsel, advice, may all be rendered compar- 
atively harmless and useful by not allowing them to rise above 
the higher .law, the highest utility, the sovereingty of the 
individual. We are liable to be deceived and disappointed 
in ourselves, as well as in others, until we are aware of this 
liability, which raises us above the danger ; and we are subject, 
not only to constant changes, but to actions and temporary 
reactions, over which (at the time) we have no control what- 
ever. The intrinsic philosophy of reactions may be beyond 
our reach, but the facts are notorious, that the reaction of 
fatigue of mind or body is rest ; that the reaction of intense 
friendship is intense enmity ; the reaction of intense love is 
indifference, a temporary or intense hatred ; the reaction of 
great benevolence is temporary malevolence ; the reaction of 
philanthropy is misanthropy ; the reaction of great hope or 
expectations is temporary or great despair ; the reaction of 
great popularity is sudden unpopularity ; and it is well known 
that the greatest benefactors of the race, from high popularity, 
have often suddenly fallen victims to an unaccountable public 
hatred. 

It is also notorious, that all of us are liable to strange in- 
consistencies of character, and that no effort on our part can 
prevent it ; that the most reasonable are sometimes very un- 
reasonable ; the most accurate observers are very often under 
mistake ; the most consistent are sometimes inconsistent; the 
most wise are sometimes foolish ; the most rational some- 
times insane ! How unreasonable, then, how inconsistent, 
how unwise, how absurd, to promise for ourselves, or to de- 
mand of others, always to be reasonable, correct, consistent, 
and wise ! under all these changes, and actions, and reactions, 
and inconsistencies of character, over which (at the time) we 



40 THE EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 

have no control whatever. How difficult to regulate our- 
selves ! How impossible to govern others ! 

Add to all these unavoidable idiosyncrasies of character, 
the nice and peculiar influences of the conditions of the vital 
organs, the circulation of the blood, the influence of intan- 
gible agents, all combining and acting differently, perhaps, on 
every different constitution, and like the changes of the kaleid- 
oscope, seldom or never twice alike, even upon the same in- 
dividual ! Add these again to what has been said in the 
foregoing pages, and to all that passes in our daily experience, 
bearing directly upon the point under consideration, and we 
shall then get only a glimpse of Individuality ; then consider 
on what foundation rest all customs, laws, and institutions 
which demand conformity! They are all directly opposed to 
this inevitable individuality, and are therefore FALSE ! ! ! and 
the great problem must be solved with the broadest admis- 
sion of the absolute right of SUPREME INDIVIDUAL- 
ITY. The exercise of this right being impracticable in com- 
bined or amalgamated interests and responsibilities, universal 
harmony demands that these be universally disintegrated, 
INDIVIDUALIZED. 



(I). THE PROPER, LEGITIMATE, JUST REWARD 
OF LABOR. 

With regard to the first proposition (marked i), the reward 
of labor, it is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to add any thing to 
what has been said within the last twenty years on this sub- 
ject. It is now evident to all eyes, that labor does not obtain 
its legitimate reward; but on the contrary, that those who 
work the hardest, fare the worst. The most elegant and costly 
houses, coaches, clothing, food, and luxuries of all kinds are 



THE EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 41 

in the hands of those who never made either of them, nor 
ever did any useful thing for themselves or for society ; while 
those who made all, and maintained themselves at the same 
time, are shivering in miserable homes, or pining in prisons 
or poor-houses, or starving in the streets. 

Machinery has thrown workmen out of their tenth-paid 
employment, and this machinery is also owned by those who 
never made it, nor gave any equivalent in their own labor for 
it. These starving workmen have no resource but upon the 
soil ; but they find that this also is under the control of those 
who never made it, nor ever did any thing as an equivalent 
for it. At this point of starvation, we must have remedy, or 
confusion. 

At this point, society must attend to the rights of labor, 
and settle, once for all, the great problem of its just reward. 
This appears to demand a discrimination, a disconnection, a 
disunion between COST and Value. 

If a traveler, in a hot day, stop at a farm-house, and ask 
for a drink of water, he generally gets it without any thought 
of price. Why 1 Because it costs nothing, or its cost is im- 
material. If the traveler was so thirsty that he would give 
a dollar for the water, rather than not have it, this would be 
the value of the water to him ; and if the farmer were to 
charge this price, he would be acting upon the principle that 
" The price of a thing should be what it will bring" which is 
the motto and spirit of all the principal commerce of the 
world ; and if he were to stop up all the neighboring springs, 
and cut of all supplies of water from other sources, and 
compel travelers to depend solely on him for water, and then 
should charge them a hundred dollars for a drink, he would 
be acting precisely upon the principle on which all the main 
business of the world has been conducted from time immemo- 
rial. It is pricing a thing according to " what it will bring," 
or according to its value to the receiver, instead of its cost to 
the producer. For an illustration in the mercantile line, con- 
sult any report of " prices current," or " state of the markets," 



42 THE EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 

with comments by the publisher. The following is a sample, 
copied from a paper, the nearest at hand : 
6 " No new arrivals of flour — demand increasing, prices rose 
8 since yesterday, at twelve o'clock, 25 cts. per barrel. 
" No change in coffee since our last. 

" Sugar raised on Thursday, half ct. per pound, in conse- 
quence of a report received of short crops ; but later arrivals 
contradicted the report, and prices fell again. Molasses, in 
demand, and holders not anxious to sell. Pork, little in 
market, and prices rising. Bacon, plenty and dull, fell since 
our last, from 15 to 13 cents. Cotton, all in few hands, bought 
up on speculation." 
5 It will here be seen, that prices are raised in consequence 
of increased want, and are lowered with its decrease. The 
most successful speculator is he who can create the most want 
in the community, and extort the most from it. This is civil- 
ized cannibalism. 
5 The value of a loaf of bread to a starving man, is equiva- 
lent to the value of his life, and if the " price of a thing" 
should be "what it will bring," then one might properly de- 
mand of the starving man, his whole future life in servitude 
as the price of the loaf! But, any one who should make 
such a demand, would be looked upon as insane, a cannibal, 
and one simultaneous voice would denounce the outrageous 
injustice, and cry aloud for retribution ! Why 1 What is it 
5 that constitutes the cannibalism in this case 1 Is it not setting a 
price upon the bread according to its value instead of its cost 1 
If the producers and venders of the bread had bestowed one 
hour's labor upon its production and in passing it to the starv- 
ing man, then some other articles which cost its producer and 
3 vender an hour's equivalent labor, would be a natural and just 
compensation for the loaf. I have placed emphasis on the 
[ idea of equivalent labor, because it appears that we must dis- 
K criminate between diffeftent kinds of labor, some being more 
' disagreeable, more repugnant, requiring a more costly draft 
upon our ease or health than others. The idea of cost extends 



THE EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 43 

to and embraces this difference. The most repugnant labor 
being considered the most costly. The idea of cost is also 
extended to all contingent expenses in production or vending. 

A watch has a cost and a value. The cost consists of the 
amount of labor bestowed on the mineral or natural wealth, 
in converting it into metal, the labor bestowed by the workmen 
in constructing the watch, the wear of tools, the rent, firewood, 
insurance, taxes, clerkship, and various other contingent ex- 
penses of its manufacturer, together with the labor expended 
in its transmission from him to its vender; and the labor I 
and contingent expenses of the vender in passing it to the C 
one who uses it. In some of these departments the labor is 
more disagreeable, or more deleterious to health than in 
others, but all these items, or more, constitute the costs of the 
watch. The value of a well-made watch, depends upon the I 
natural qualities of the metals or minerals employed, upon 
the natural qualities or principles of its mechanism, upon the 
uses to which it is applied, and upon the fancy or wants of 
the purchaser. It would be different with every different 
watch, with every purchaser, and would change every day 
in the hands of the same purchaser, and with every different 
use to which he applied it. 

Now, among this multitude of values, which one should be 
selected to set a price upon 1 or, should the price be made to 
vary and fluctuate according to these fluctuating values / and 
never be completely sold,* but only from hour to hour? 
Common sense answers neither, but, that these values, like 
those of sunshine and air, are of right, the equal property of 
all ; no one having a right to set any price whatever upon them. 
Cost, then, is the only rational ground of price, even in the 
most complicated transactions ; yet, value is made almost en- 
tirely the governing principle in almost all the commerce of 
what is called civilized society I 

* Ridiculous as this appears, it is actually carried out in limited leases on land, Q 
which is never completely sold, but subject to have a new price set upon it at the 
expiration of each leasp, according to its fluctuating values ! 



44 THE EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 

One may inform another that his house is on fire. The in- 
formation may be of great value to him and his family, but 
as it costs nothing, there is no ground of price. Conversation, 
and all other intercourse of mind with mind, by which each 
may be infinitely benefited, may prove of inconceivable value 
to all ; where the cost is nothing, or too trifling to notice, it 
constitutes what is here distinguished as purely intellectual 
commerce. 

The performance of a piece of music for the gratification 
of oneself and others, in which the performer feels pleasure 
but no pain, and which is attended with no contingent cost, 
may be said to cost nothing ; there is, therefore, no ground 
of price. It may, however, be of great value to all within 
hearing. 

This intercourse of the feelings, which is not addressed to 
the intellect, and has no pecuniary feature, is here distinguish- 
ed as our moral commerce. 

A word of sympathy to the distressed may be of great 
value to them ; and to make this value the ground and limit 
of a price, would be but to follow out the principle that a 
" thing should bring its value /" Mercenary as we are, even 
now, this is no where done except by the priesthood. 

A man has a lawsuit pending, upon which hangs his prop- 
erty, his security, his personal liberty, or his life. The lawyer 
who undertakes his case may ask ten, twenty, fifty, five hun- 
dred, or five thousand dollars, for a few hours attendance or 
labor in the case. This charge would be based chiefly on the 
value of his services to his client. Now, there is nothing in 
this statement that sounds wrong, but it is because our ears 
are familiarized with wrong. The case is similar to that of the 
starving man. The cost to the lawyer might be, say twenty 
hours' labor, and allowing a portion for his apprenticeship, 
say twenty-one hours in all, with all contingent expenses, 
would constitute a legitimate, a just ground of price ; but the 
very next step beyond this rests upon value, and is the first 
step in cannibalism. The laborer, when he comes to dig the 



THE EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 45 

lawyer's cellar, never thinks of setting a price upon its future 
value to the owner ; he only considers how long it will take C 
him, how hard the ground is, what will be the weather to 
which he will be exposed, what will be the wear and tear of 
teams, tools, clothes, etc. ; and in all these items, he considers 
nothing but the different items of cost to himself. 

The doctor demands of the wood-cutter the proceeds of 6 
five, ten, or twenty days' labor for a visit of an hour, and 
asks, in excuse, if the sick man would not prefer this rather 
than continuous disease or death. This, again, is basing a 
price on an assumed value of his attendance instead of its 
cost. It is common to plead the difference of talents re- 
quired : without waiting to prove this plea false, it is, perhaps, 
sufficient to show that the talents required, either in cutting 
wood, or in cutting off a leg or an arm, so far as they cost 
the possessor, are a legitimate ground of estimate and of 
price ; but talents which cost nothing, are natural wealth, and v 
like the water, land, and sunshine, should be accessible to all 
without price. 

If a priest is required to get a soul out of purgatory, he 6 
sets his price according to the value which the relatives set 
upon his prayers, instead of their cost to the priest. This, 
again, is cannibalism. The same amount of labor equally 
disagreeable, with equal wear and tear, performed by his cus- 
tomers, would be a just remuneration. 

All patents give to the inventor or discoverer the power to 6 
command a price based upon the value of the thing patented ; 
instead of which, his legitimate compensation would be an 
equivalent for the cost of his physical and mental labor, added 
to that of his materials, and the contingent expenses of ex- 
periments. 

A speculator buys a piece of land of government, for 6 
$1 25 per acre, and holds it till surrounding improvements, 
made by others, increase its value, and it is then sold accord- 
ingly, for five, ten, twenty, a hundred, or ten thousand dollars 
er acre. From this operation of civilized cannibalism whole 



46 THE • EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 

. families live from generation to generation, in idleness and 
luxury, upon the surrounding population, who must have the 
land at any price. Instead of this, the prime cost of land, 

v the taxes, and other contingent expenses of surveying, etc., 
added to the labor of making contracts, would constitute the 
equitable price of land purchased for sale. 

C If A purchases a lot for his own use, and B wants it more 
than A, then A may properly consider what his labor upon it 
has cost him, and what would compensate him for the incon- 

' venience or cost of parting with it ; but this is a very different 
thing from purchasing it on purpose to part with it, which costs 
A no inconvenience. We here discriminate between these 

1 two cases, but in neither do we go beyond cost as the limit of 
price. . 

A loans to B ten thousand dollars at six per cent, interest, 
for one year, and at the end of the year receives back the 
whole amount loaned and six hundred dollars more ! For 
what? For the use of the money. Why"? Because it was 

6 of that value to the borrower. For the same reason, why not 
demand of the starving man ten thousand dollars for a loaf 
of bread because it saves his life 1 The legitimate, the equi- 

C table compensation for the loan of money, is the cost of labor 
in lending it and receiving it back again. 

6 Rents of land, buildings, etc., especially in cities, are based 
chiefly on their value to the occupants, and this depends on 

6 the degree of want or distress felt by the landless and house- 
less ; the greater the distress, the higher the value and the 
price. The equitable rent of either would be the wear, in- 

C surance, etc., and the labor of making contracts and receiving 
the rents, all of which are different items of cost. 

13 The products of machinery are now sold for what they will 
" bring," and therefore its advantages go exclusively into the 
pockets of its owners. If these products were priced at the 
4 cost of the machinery, its wear, attendance, etc., then cap- 
italists would not be interested in its introduction any 
more than those who attended it ; they would not be interest- 



THE EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 47 

ed in reducing the wages of its attendants ; and in proportion 
as it threw workmen out of employment it would work for 
them. 

One of the most common, most disgusting features of this 
iniquitous spirit of the present pecuniary commerce, is seen 
and felt by every one, in all the operations of buying and 
selling. The cheating, higgling, huckstering, and falsehoods, W 
so degrading to both purchaser and vender, and the injustice 
done to one party or the other, in almost every transaction in 
trade, all originate in the chaotic union of cost, value, and the 
reward of labor of the vender all into one price. To bring 1 
order out of this confusion, to put a stop to the discord and vii 
degradation of trade, and to reward the distributor of goods 
without invading the property of the purchaser, there is prob- 
ably no other way than to discriminate between the cost and 1 
the value of the goods, and between the cost of the goods and 
the cost of the labor of buying and selling them — keeping 
these disconnected, INDIVIDUALIZED. A store-keeper 
selling a needle, cannot get paid for his labor within the price 
of the needle ; to do this he must disconnect the two, and 
make the needle one item of the charge, and his labor another. 
If he sell the needle for its prime cost, and its portion of con- 
tingent expenses, and charge an equal amount of labor for vii 
that which he bestows in purchasing and vending, he is equi- 
tably remunerated for his labor, and his customer's equal 
right is not invaded. Again, he cannot connect his remunera- 
tion with a larger article with any more certainty of doing 
justice to himself or his customer. If he add three cents upon 
each yard of calico, as his compensation, his customers may 1 
take one yard, and he does not get an equivalent for his 
labor. If the customer take thirty yards, he becomes over- C 
paid, and his customer is wronged. Disconnection of the two 
elements of price, and making cost the limit of each, works vii 
equitably for both parties in all cases, and at once puts an 
end to the higgling, the deception, frauds, and every other 
disgusting and degrading feature of our pecuniary commerce. 



48 THE EQUITABLE REWARD OF LABOR. 

An importer of foreign goods writes a letter to a foreign 
correspondent for goods to the amount of twenty thousand 
dollars. On their arrival, if he sell them for what they will 
" bring," perhaps he gets forty thousand for them, which may 
be about eighteen thousand over and above the prime cost 
and contingent expenses, which he obtains for, perhaps, eight 
or ten hours' labor iwwnerchandising ; which is about thirty- 
six thousand times as much as the hardest working man ob- 
tains for the same time. With this sum he could obtain one 
hundred and forty-four thousand times an equivalent from 
females at 12£ cents a day, or that of two hundred and eighty- 
eight thousand children at 61 cents a day ! In Equitable 
Commerce the expenses of importation, insurance, etc., etc., 
and those of vending, would be added to prime cost, all of 
which would constitute ultimate cost, which would also consti- 
tute their price. The labor of importing and vending would 
be paid in an equal amount of labor ; so that if the importer 
employed ten hours in corresponding with the- foreign mer- 
chant and receiving the goods, then he would get, upon equi- 
table principles, ten hours of some other labor, which was 
equally costly to the performer of it. If scraping the streets 
were doubly as costly to comfort, clothing, tools, etc., the im- 
porter of foreign goods would get five hours of this labor for 
ten of his own ! This would constitute the equitable reward 
of labor to both parties. Cost being made the limit of price, 
thus works out the first proposition of our problem, the equi- 
table reward of labor ! Legislators ! Framers of social in- 
stitutions ! Behold your most fatal error ! You have sanc- 
tioned value instead of cost as the basis of your institutions ! 
Behold, also, the origin of rich and poor ! the fatal pitfall of 
the working classes ! the great political blunder ! the deep- 
seated, unseen germ of the confusion, insecurity, and iniquity 
of the world ! the mildew, the all-pervading poison of the 
social condition ! 



SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 49 



(II.) SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 

Theorists have told us that laws and governments are 
made for the security of person and property ; but it must 
be evident to most minds, that they never have, never will 
accomplish this professed object ; although they have had all 
the world at their control for thousands of years, they have 
brought it to a worse condition than that in which they found 
it, in spite of the immense improvements in mechanism, di- 
vision of labor, and other elements of civilization to aid them. 
On the contrary, under the plausible pretext of securing per- 
son and property, they have spread wholesale destruction, fam- 
ine, and wretchedness, in every frightful form over all parts 
of the earth, where peace and security might otherwise have 
prevailed. They have shed more blood, committed more 27 
murders, tortur.es, and other frightful crimes in the struggles 
against each other for the privilege of governing ,*lhan society 
ever would or could have suffered in the total absence of all 
governments whatever ! It is impossible for any one who 
can read the history of governments, and the operations of 
laws, to feel secure in person and property under any form 
of government, or any code of laws whatever. They invade 27 
the private household, they impertinently meddle with, and in 
their blind and besotted wantonness, presume to regulate the 
most sacred individual feelings. No feelings of security, no 
happiness can exist in the governed under such circumstances. 27 
They set up rules or laws to which they require conformity, 
while conformity is impossible, and while neither rulers nor 
ruled can tell how the laws will be interpreted or administer- 
ed ! Under such circumstances, no security for the governed 
can exist. 

A citizen may be suddenly hurried away from his home 27 
and despairing family, shut up in a horrid prison, charged with 

5 



50 SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 

a $rime of which he is totally innocent ; he may die in prison 
or on the gallows, anci his family may die of mortification and 
broken hearts. No security can exist where this can happen ; 
yet, all these are the operations of laws and governments, 
which are professedly instituted for the " security of person 
and property." 

27 A young girl is knocked down and violated in the country 
where law " secures person and property." She applies to 
law for redress, and is put in prison and kept there for six 
months as a witness, to appear against her violator, who is 
running at large, forfeits his bonds, and disappears before his 
victim is restored to liberty ; and laws and governments arc 
"instituted for securing the rights of person and property !" 

27 A woman is abandoned by a worthless husband, and re- 
duced to the necessity of permitting a villian to board with 
her a year without any remuneration. He has consumed her 
last loaf; she appeals to the law for redress ; the villian brings 
the drunken husband into cotfrt. The law (for the protection 
of person and property) forbids the woman to apply for re- 
dress whither husband is living (though drunk). Her ap- 
peal is suppressed — she is nonsuited, anpl put in prison to 
pay the cost of her protection ! " Laws and governments are 
instituted for the protection of person and property /" 

Rulers claim a right to rise above and control the individ- 
ual, his labor, his trade, his time, and his property, against 
his own judgment and inclination, while security of person' 
and property cannot consist IN ANY THING LESS 
THAN HAVING THE SUPREME GOVERNMENT 
OF HIMSELF AND ALL HIS OWN INTERESTS-; 
therefore, security cannot exist under any government what- 
ever. 

27 Governments involve the citizen in national and state re- 
sponsibilities from which he would choose to be exempt; 
under these circumstances he can feel no security for person 

27 or property. They compel him to desert his family, and risk 
or lay down his life in wars in which he feels no wish to en- 



SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 51 

gage ; they leave him no choice, no freedom of action upon 27 
those very points where his most vital interests, his deepest 
sympathies are at stake. He can feel no security under gov- 
ernments. 

Great crimes are committed by the government of one na- 27 
tion against another, to gratify the ambition or lust of -rulers; 
the people of both nations are thus set to destroy the persons 
and property of each other, and would be martyred as trait- 
ors if they refused. This is the " security of person and 
property" afforded by governments. 

The accomplished, the intelligent, the beautiful and amiable 27 
Ann Askew, could be seized in her bed by the ruffian emis- 
saries of the law, and dragged in the dead of the night to 
torture — her delicate limbs torn asunder, her slender bones 
broken, and she rendered unable to walk, but carried to the 
place of execution, and burned alive, for not believing a point 
of religion prescribed by law / Say not that these things 27 
have passed away with the reign of Henry VIII. of Eng- 
land. The spirit is here at work now in our midst, in Dem- 
ocratic America, in the year 1846. Some of our best citizens * " 
are torn from their families and friends and thrust into loath- 
some prisons, for not believing in a point of religion prescrib- 
ed by law ; another for working in the field on a day set 
apart by law for idleness. One case of this kind is sufficient 
to show that no security exists for the governed ; but the great- 27 
est chance for it is with those who can get possession of the 8 
governing power ; hence arises the universal scramble for the 
possession of power, as the preferable of the two conditions. 
These struggles and intrigues for power increase a thousand 7 
fold the insecurity of all parties. Rulers kill the members 
of society as punishment for offenses, instead of tracing these 27 
offenses to their own operations ; and their pernicious exam- 
ple and prescriptions becoming authority for the uniformed, 
prompt them to kill their neighbors for an offense — to become 
their brother's judge or their neighbor's keeper ; and crimina- 
tion and recrimination, and slander, wrangling, discord, and - 



52 SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 

murder, are the natural fruits of these laws for the " security 
of person and property." No security for peace, harmony, 
or reputation, for person or property, can exist in such society. 

8 If B has done what law forbids (although it be the preser- 
vation of a fellow-creature), he is insecure while there are 
witnesses who may appear against him ; and all these are in- 
secure as long as B feels insecure. A large portion of all the 
murders committed since the invention of laws h^e been 
perpetrated to silence witnesses. The murderers are, in their 
turn, murdered by law, and thus crimes increase and continue, 
8 originating in the insecurity produced by laws for " securing 
person and property!" 

Again, words are the tenure by which every thing is held 
by law, and words are subject to different interpretations^ ac- 
cording to the views, wills, or interests of the judges, lawyers, 

8 juries, and other functionaries appointed to execute these laws. 
In this uncertainty of interpretation lies the great fundamen- 
tal element of insecurity which is inseparable from any system 
of laws, any constitution, articles of compact, and every thing 

2 of this description. No language is fit for any such purposes 
that admits of more than one Individual interpretation, and 
none can be made to possess this necessary individuality ; 
therefore no language is jit for the basis of positive institutions. 
To possess the interpreting power of verbal institutions, is to 
possess UNLIMITED POWER ! 

2 It is not generally known, or practically admitted, that each 
individual is liable, and, therefore, has a right, to interpret 
language according to his peculiar individuality,. That a creed, 
a constitution, laws, articles of association, are all liable to as 
many different interpretations as there are parties to it, that 
each one reads it through his own particular mental spectacles, 

1 and that which is blue to one is yellow to another, and green 
to a third ; that although all give their assent to the words, 

2 each one gives his assent to his peculiar interpretation of them, 
which is only known to himself, so that the difference be- 
tween them can be made to appear only in action ; which, as 



SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 53 

soon as it commences, explodes the discordant elements in 
every direction, always disappointing the expectations of all 
who had calculated on uniformity or conformity. Every at- 
tempt at amendment only produces new disappointments, 
and increases the necessity for other amendments and addi- 
tions without end, all to end in disappointment and the greater 8 
insecurity of every one engaged in or trusting to them. To 
be harmonious and successful we must begin anew ; we must 
disconnect, disunite ourselves from all institutions based on lan- 
guage, or rise above them. Every one must feel that he is 
the supreme arbiter of his own ; that no power on earth shall 
rise above him ; that he is, and always shall be, sovereign of 
himself, and all trftit constitutes or is necessarily connected l 
with his individuality. Let every one feel this, and they will 
feel that which man has always yearned and panted for, but 
has never realized in society— SECURITY OF PERSON 
AND PROPERTY. 

But how, you ask, can this be, where each is a member of 
the body politic — where obedience to some law or govern- 
ment is indispensable to the working of the political machine ? 
It every one was " the law unto himself," all would be perfect 
anarchy and confusion. No doubt of this. The error lies 
farther back than you have contemplated ; it lies in each S 

ONE BEING A MEMBER OF A BODY POLITIC. We SHOULD BE 

NO SUCH THING AS A BODY POLITIC ! " JCaCH MAN AND WOMAN *""* 

MUST BE AN INDIVIDUAL NO MEMBER OF ANY BODY BUT 

that of the human family ! What is the use or origin of 
a body politic? Blackstone,the father of English and Amer- 
ican law, says, " It is the wants and the fears of individuals 
which make them congregate together," and form society ; in 
other words, it is for the interchange of mutual assistance, and 
for security of person and property, that society is originally 
formed. Now, if neither of these objects has ever been attain- 
ed in society, and if we can show the means of attaining them, 
otherwise we have no reason for keeping up a body politic. 
With regard to economy in the supply of our wants, this will 27 



54 SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 

be treated of in its proper place. With regard to security, we 
see that in the wide range of the world's bloody history, there 
is not any one horrid feature so frightful, so appalling, as the 
recklessness, the cold-blooded indifference with which laws 
and governments have sacrificed person and property in their 
wanton, their criminal, or ignorant pursuit of some blind pas- 
sion, or unsubstantial phantom of the imagination. We have 
not the space, nor is it necessary, to enter into details ; let the 
reader refer to any page of history, let him remember that 
laws and governments are professedly instituted for the se- 
curity of person and property, and let him consider each page 
an illustration of their success, then he will be able to appre- 
ciate a proposal to secure them by some* other means. The 
following is only an illustration. Lamartine, in his history 
of the first French Revolution, says : 

" The bombardment (of Mayence) commenced with three hundred 
pieces of cannon. The mills which furnished flour were set on fire ; 
meat, as well as bread, was wanting; horses, dogs, cats, and mice 
were devoured by the inhabitants. Pitiless famine compelled the gen- 
eris to send from the town all useless mouths. Old men, women, and 
children were driven from its bosom, to the number of two or three 
thousand, who were equally repulsed by the Prussians, and expired 
between the two armies, under the cannon of the batteries or in the 
agonies of hunger !" 

Is it not time to seek security by some other means than 
by the workings of government ! ! 

Theorists say, that governments are established for the 
" security of person and property," but there is another rea- 
son for their existence of a more tangible character : it is the 
I transaction of the business of any combination. In ' order to 
ii dispense with governments, then, we have to withdraw all 
business out of combinations ! to individualize, to disunite all 
interests, all responsibilities ; then, and not till then, can we 
dispense with governments ; then, and not till then, will person 
vi and property be secure, and society be harmonious. While 
7 one's person, his time, his labor, his clothing, his lodging, the 
V education and destinies of his children, are all locked up in 



SECURITY OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 55 

national, state, county, township, or reform combinations, and 
all subject to be controlled by others who may differ from 
him, it is impossible for him to know scciinty of person or 
property. 

The security of person and property requires exemption 8 
from the fear of encroachments from any quarter; and, al- 
though governments have always been the greatest depreda- 
tors upon the rights of persons and property, yet, there are 8 
other sources of insecurity r which call for remedy, and which 
demand, the operation of the cost principle supplies. It will 
be seen, upon reflection, that value being iniquitiously made 
the basis of price produces all the ruinous fluctuations in 
trade, the uncertainty of business, the uncertainty of the re- 8 
ward of industry, and the inadequacy of its reward ; it pro- 
duces poverty, and the fear of poverty, avarice, and the all- 
absorbing pursuit of property, without regard to the" rights or 
sympathy for the sufferings of others, and trains us, in the 
absence of all knowledge or rule of right, mutually to en- 
croach upon and invade each other ; all of which, including 8 
the encroachments of governments, give rise to the insecurity 
of person and property. Cost being made the limit of 
price, would put a stop to all fluctuations in prices and in 
trade, would enable each one to know, from year to year, the 
price of every thing, would put a stop to every species of 
speculation, compel every one to produce as much as he con- 
sumed, would distribute the burthen of labor among all, and 
reduce the amount of labor of each, to one, two, or three hours 
per day, would raise every one ABOVE THE TEMPT- n 
ATION TO INVADE ANOTHER, and every one would, 
consequently, feel secure from any encroachments — govern- 
ments and laws would not then be thought necessary, in order 
to restrain men from encroaching on each other, and this ex- 
cuse for their existence would be swept away. Then if all 1 
business, all interests were withdrawn out of national, state, m 
church, and all other combinations, and made the care and 
business "of Individuals, the demand for public agents or of- 



56 LIBERTY. 

fleers would be done away, and no excuse for governments 
or laws would remain. The power now delegated to them 

S would thus be ^stored back to each individual, who would 
possess his natural liberty or sovereignty ; which principle, 

vii together with the rights of labor and property, being clearly 
defined and admitted by public opinion, would be habitually 
respected by all, each being raised above any temptation to 
violate the admitted rights of person or property. When 
every one shall have an interest in the preservation of each, 
then the troubled waters will have become calmed ; down- 
trodden humanity will stand erect upon ground as level as 

vn nature makes it ; every one can then " sit under his own vine 
and fig tree, and there will be none to make them afraid ;" 

ii and man will realize what man has never seen, and that which 
man shall never otherwise know— SECURITY OF PER- 
SON AND PROPERTY. 



(III.) THE GREATEST PRACTICABLE AMOUNT OF 
LIBERTY TO EACH INDIVIDUAL. 

Liberty ! Freedom ! Right ! The vital principle of hap- 
piness ! The one perfect law ! The soul of every thing that 
exalts and refines us ! The one sacred sound that touches a 
sympathetic cord in every living breast ! The watchword of 
every revolution in the holy cause of suffering humanity ! 
Freedom ! The last lingering word whispered from the dying 
martyr's quivering lips ! The one precious boon — the atmos- 
phere of heaven. The " one mighty breath, which shall, like 
a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze the whole dark pile of hu- 
man mockeries." When is liberty to take up its abode on 
eprtl 1 

What is liberty? Who will allow me to define it for 
him, and agree beforehand to square his life" by my 






LIBERTY. 57 

definition ? Who does not wish to see it first, and sit in 
judgment on it, and decide for himself as to its propriety 1 
and who does not see that it is his own individual interprets S 
tion of the word that he adopts? And who will agree to 
square his whole life by any rule, which, although good <•' 
present, may not prove applicable to all cases'? Who ti ■ 
not wish to preserve his liberty to act according to the peci li- 
arities or individualities of future cases, and to sit in judg- 
ment on the merits of each, and to change or vary from time 
to time with new developments and increasing knowledge % 
Each individual being thus at liberty at all times, would be 
sovereign of himself. NO GRE*ATER AMOUNT OF S 
LIBERTY CAN BE CONCEIVED— ANY LESS WOULD 
NOT BE LIBERTY! Liberty defined and limited by 
others is slavery ! Liberty, then, s the SOVEREIGNTY m 
OF THE INDIVIDUAL ; and never shall man know liberty 
until each and every individual is acknowledged to be the only 
legitimate sovereign of his or her person, time, and property, 
each living and acting at his own cost; and not until we live 
in society where each can exercise this inalienable right of 
sovereignty at all times without clashing with, or violating 1 
that of others. This is impracticable just in proportion as we 
or our interests are UNITED or combined with others. The 
only ground upon which man can know liberty, is that of dis- 
connection, DISUNION, INDIVIDUALITY. 

You and I may associate together as the best of friends, as 1 
long as our interests are not too closely connected ; but let our 
domestic arrangements be too closely connected ; let me be- 
come responsible for your debts, or let me, by joining a society 
of Tfjhioh. you are a member, become responsible for your senti- 
ments, and the discordant effects of too close connection will 
immediately appear. Harmonious society can be erected on 
no other ground than the strictest individuality of interests 
and responsibilities, nor can the liberty of mankind be restored 
upon any other principle or mode of action. How can it be 25 
otherwise 1 If my interest is united with yours, and we differ 



58 LIBERTY. 

at any point in its management, as this difference is inevitable, 
one must yield, the other must decide, or, we must leave the 
decision to a third party. This third party is government, 
and thus, in united interests, government originates. The 
more business there is thus committed to governmental man- 
agement, the more must each of the governed surrender his 

8 liberty or his control over his own, and the greater must be 
the amount of power delegated to the government. When 
this becomes unlimited or indefinite, the government is ab- 
solute, and the liberty and security of the governed are an- 
nihilated ; when limited or definite, some liberty remains to 
the governed. Experience has proved, that power cannot he 
delegated to rulers of states and nations, in sufficient quantities 
for the managemant of business, without its becoming an indefi- 
nite quantity, and in this indefinilcness have mankind been 
cheated out of their legitimate liberty. 

Let twenty persons combine their means to build a bridge, 
each contributing twenty dollars — at the first meeting for bu- 

1 siness it is found that the business of such combinations can 
be conducted only by electing some one indvidual deciding 

22 and acting power, before any practical steps can be taken. 
Here each subscriber must trust his twenty dollars to the man- 
agement of some one, perhaps not of his own choice, yet, as 
the sum is definite and not serious, its loss may not disturb 
his security, and he prefers to risk it for the prospective ad- 
vantages to himself and his neighborhood. In entering his 
twenty dollars into this combination he submits it to the con- 
trol of others, but he submits nothing more ; and if he is aware 
beforehand, that the business of all combinations must be 
conducted by delegated power ; and if he is not compellc^o 
submit to any conditions not contemplated beforehand ; and 
if he can withdraw his investment at pleasure, then there is 
no violation of his natural liberty or sovereignty over his 
own ; or, if he choose to make a permanent investment, and 
lay down all future control over it, for the sake of a prospect- 
ive advantage, it is a surrender of so much of his property 



LIBERTY. 59 

(not his liberty) to the control of others; but, it being a def- 
inite quantity, and the risks and conditions all being made 
known and voluntarily consented to beforehand, the conse- 
quences may not be serious to him ; and, although he may- 
discover, in the course of the business, that the principle is 
wrong, yet, he may derive ultimate advantage, under some 
circumstances, from so much combination — some may be I 
willing to invest more and others less. If each one is him- 
self the supreme judge at all times of the individual case in 
hand, and is free to act from his own individual estimate of S 
the advantages To be derived to himself or others, as in tjie 
above instance, then the natural liberty of the . individual is 
not invaded ; but it is when the decision or will of others is 27 
made his rule of action, contrary to his views or inclina- 
tion, that his legitimate liberty is violated. 

We eat prussic acid in a peach — another quantity of prussic 1 
acid is certain and sudden death. Let us learn to discrimi- 
nate, to individualize our ideas, even of different quantities of 
the same thing. The above amount of^combination may be 
harmless ; indeed, it may give us a healthful proof that it is 
wrong in principle, and admonish us not to pursue it farther. 
But now let us contemplate another degree of combination — 
combination as the basis of society, involving all the great in- 7 
terests of man; his liberty, his person, his mind, his time, his 
labor, his food, the soil he rests upon, his property, his re- 
sponsibilities to an indefinite extent, his security, the education 
and destinies of his children, the indefinite interests of his 
race ! In such combinations, whether political or social, the 1 
different members can never be found always possessing the 
same views and feelings on all these subjects. Not even two 
persons can perform a piece of music together in order, unless 
one of them commences or leads individually, or, unless both 
agree to be governed by some third movement, which is an 1 
individuality. Two leaders cannot lead — the lead must be in- 
dividual, or confusion and discord will be the result. The 
same is true with regard to any combined movement. In po- 



60 LIBERTY. 

litical and social combinations, men have sought to mitigate 
the horrid abuses of despotism by diffusing the delegated 
power, but they have always purchased the relief at the ex- 

27 pense of confusion. The experience of all the world has 
shown, that the business of such combinations cannot be con- 
ducted by the whole of its members, but that one or a few 
must be set apart to lead and manage the business of the 
combination ; to these, power must be delegated JUST IN 
PROPORTION TO THE AMOUNT OF BUSINESS 

8 COMMITTED TO THEIR CHARGE. These constitute the 
government of the combination, and to thi# government all 
must yield their INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY, or the 
combination cannot move one step. If their persons, their 
responsibilities, and all their interests are involved in the 
combination, as in communities of common property, all 
these must be entirely under the control of the government, 
whose judgment or will is the rule for all the governed, and 
the natural liberty or sovereignty of every member is entirely 
annihilated, and the*government is as strong, as absolute as 
a government can be made, while the members are rendered 
as weak and as dependent on the governing few as they can 
be rendered, and consequently, their liberty and security 
are reduced to the lowest practicable degree. If only half of 
the interests of the individual are invested in the combination, 
then only half the quantity of government is required, and 
only half of the natural liberty of the members need to be 
surrendered ; but as this definite quantity cannot be measured 

2 and set apart from the other half, and as government once erect- 
ed, either through the indefiniteness of the language in which 
the power is delegated or by other means, will steal the other 
half; there is no security, no liberty for mankind, but through 
the abandonment of combinations as the basis of society. 

25 If governments originate in combined interests, and if gov- 

iii ernment and liberty cannot exist together, then the solution 
of our problem demands that there be no combined inter- 

1 ests to manage. All interests must be individualized — all 



ECONOMIES. 61 

responsibilities must be individual, before men can enjoy com- vn 
plete liberty or security, and before society can be completely 
harmonious. We can dispense with government only in pro- 
portion as we can reduce the amount of public business to be 
managed. This, then, is the movement for the restoration of 
the liberty of mankind ; it is to disconnect, to individualize, 
rather than to combine or " UNITE" our interests ! 

When one's person, his labor, his responsibilities, the soil 1 
he rests on, his food, his property, and all his interests are so in 
disconnected, disunited from others, that he can control or dis- 
pose of these at all times, according to his own views and 
feelings, without controling or disturbing others; and when 
his premises are sacred to himself, and his person is not. ap- 
proached, nor his time and attention taken up, against his in- 
clination, then the individual may be said to be practically 
sovereign of himself, and all that constitutes or pertains to 
his individuality. No greater scope of liberty for every in- 
dividual can be conceived — any less is not the " greatest prac- 
ticable amount of liberty," and will not supply the demand 
of our third proposition, (ni.) 



(IV.) ECONOMY IN THE PRODUCTION AND USES 
OF WEALTH. 

The first and greatest source of economy, the richest mine 
of wealth ever worked by man, is, the division and ex- i 
change of labor. Where a man is so isolated from society 
as to be deprived of the advantages of division and exchange 
of labor, and has to supply all his own wants, like Robinson 
Crusoe, there is nothing to distinguish him from the savage. 
It is only in proportion as he can apply himself to one or a 
few pursuits, and exchange his products for the supply of all 
his wants, that he begins to emerge from the crudest state of 



62 ECONOMIES. 

existence, to surround himself with conveniences and luxuries, 
and to reduce the burthen of his own labor. 

1 Were it not for the division and exchange of labor, every 
one who used a needle would be obliged to make it. He or 
she must dig the ore, erect a furnace, convert the ore into iron, 
then into steel, and construct all the machinery and tools ne- 
cessary to make the needles, and make all the tools required 
in those operations ! As this would be impossible, we should be 
obliged to resort to such clothing as could be made without 
them ; and were it not for the division and exchange of labor 
in the production of the single article of needles, it is prob- 
able, that civilized society would still be clothed like the un- 
civilized. 

Division and exchange are naturally carried to- a greater ex- 
tent in cities than in the open country. This, probably, in 
part, explains the enigma of so many being sustained lux- 
uriously in cities apparently almost without labor, while men 
in the country are always hard at work, but rarely have things 

1 comfortable around them. Being so remote from division 
and exchange, they are obliged to supply many of their own 
wants without the ordinary means of doing it — without tools 
— without instruction — without practice, they must mend a 
gate, repair their harness, make their own shoes, and expend, 
perhaps, three times the labor that a workman would require 
in the same operations, and it is badly done at last. They 
must also have as many kinds of tools as the different opera- 
tions demand, which it requires care to preserve and keep in 
order, and between all, their time and capital are frittered away 
to little purpose. Five hundred men thus scattered too re- 
mote from each other, or, from other causes being unable to 
procure the advantages of division and exchange, must have 
five hundred pairs of bench planes, and other tools for work- 
ing wood — five hundred sets of shoe-making tools — five hun- < 
dred places and fixtures for working iron, and five hundred 
equipments in every other branch of business in which they 

10 are obliged to dabble. Now, if these five hundred men or 



ECONOMIES. G3 * 

families were within reach of eaoh other, and each one were to 
apply himself to only one branch of business, and all should 
exchange with each other, each one would require only one set 
of tools, and one trade, instead of thirty or forty — his work 
would be well done instead of ill done — and if exchanges iv 
were equal, the wants of each would be well supplied, at per- 
haps, the cost of one fourth the labor that is now required to 
supply one half their wants in an inferior manner. 

If such are the enormous advantages of division and ex 
change, how can we account for the fact, that so large portions 
of all countries being deprived of them, and that even in cities 
division is not carried out, excepting in a very few branches 37 
of manufacture 1 I attribute this barbarous condition of the 
economies chiefly to two causes. First, the practice of mak- 
ing value the standard of price — asking for a thing just what 
it will bring, just balances the motives of the purchaser, so, 
that a man wanting a pair of shoes, being asked as much as 
he would give for them, rather than go without them, makes 
him form the habit of going without whenever he can,«or of 
making them himself even at a disadvantage. Whereas, on 37 
the contrary, if he could always get them for that amount of 
his own labor which they cost an expert workman, he could 
have no motive to do without them, nor to spend three times 
as -much labor in making them himself. The same cause and 
the same reasons ramify into all our supplies. 

A wants a barrel of flour, and goes to the " holder," but he 37 
is " not anxious to sell ;" a report of short crops induces him 
to think that there will not be a supply for the demand — it will 
be wanted more by-and-by, and he can get more as want or 
suffering increases ; so A does not get the flour — no exchange 
of flour takes place yet; he waits — goes again — he is told that 
flour has " risen since yesterday at 12 o'clock," he must pay 
more than usual, and the price is set at what the holder thinks 
" it will bring ;" but A, knowing that one fluctuation follows 
another, thinks he will wait till the price falls ; so no exchange 
of flour takes place yet. A has still* no flour — and thus it is 37 



64 ECONOMIES. 

with every thing else; the same elements ramify into all 
our exchanges, and derange all our efforts to obtain supplies. 
Making value, or " what a thing will bring," the limit of its 
price, stagnates exchange, and prevents our wants from being 
supplied. 

Now, if it were not a* part of the present system to get a 
price according to the degree of want or suffering of the com- 
munity, there would long since have been some arrangement 
made to adapt the supply to the demand. This, even in 
the present wretched jumble of accidents, would, to a great 
extent, soften some of the most hideous features flf our can- 
nibal commerce. 
A In society where even the first element of order had made 
its way to the intellects of men, there would be some point 
at which all would continually make known their wants, as far 
as they could anticipate them, and put them in a position to be 
supplied — and all who wanted employment would know where 
to look for it, and the supply would, be adapted to the demand. 
J We should not then have all the flour carried out of the coun- 
j try where it was raised, so that none could be had (as at this 
/ moment while I am writing), and carried a thousand miles in 
1 anticipation of higher prices. This. rush of flour has " exceed- 
ed the demand^' — "prices have fallen" — twelve hundred bar- 
rels have spoiled in one man's hands, and two thousand barrels 
. are on their way back to the place of production ! where, after 
having been stored and booked, and drayed and shipped to New 
Orleans, and there unshipped and drayed, and stored and book- 
ed, and waiting for a demand, it is again drayed and shipped, and 
/ brought back to be unshipped, drayed, and stored and booked, 
and sold, half spoiled, to its original producers, for all its first 
/ cost, with all these expenses added, and as much more as the 
holders " can get." This is the economy of our present profit- 
making commerce ! 

The adaptation of the supply to the demand, although it is 
continually governing the bodies of men, seems never to have 
made its way into their intellects, or they would have made 



ECONOMIES. 65 

it the governing principle of their arrangements. It is this 
which prompts almost every action of life, not only of men, 
but other animals — insects — all animated nature. All man's 
pursuits originate in his efforts to supply some of his wants, 
either physical, mental, or moral ; even our intellectual com- 
merce is unconsciously governed by this great principle, when- 
ever it is harmonious and beneficial ; and it is discordant and 
depreciating where it is not so regulated. An answer to a A 
question is but a supply to a demand. Advice, when wanted, 
is acceptable, but never otherwise — COMMANDS are never 
in this order, and produce nothing but disorder. The sov- vn 
ereignty of the individual must correct this. 

Almost every movement of every animal is from nature's A 
promptings toward the supply of some of its wants. Nay, 
more, if it is wounded, there is naturally an action toward 
the formation of new skin, or new parts to supply the defi- 
ciency created. The same principle runs even into the vege- 
table creation. The bark of a tree being torn away, nature 
goes to work to supply the demand thus produced, with new 
bark, which otherwise never would have occupied that place. 
Even a pumkin-vine having run too far to draw nourishment 
from its original starting point, strikes down new roots, to 
draw a supply of nourishment necessary to its progress. Had 
"the combined wisdom" of any country ever equaled that of 
a pumkin-vine, that country would have had some arrange, 
ment for adapting the supply to the demand. But this will 6 
never be, while speculations are made by throwing the de- 
mand and supply out of their natural proportions, or while 
value, instead of cost, is made the limit of price. This false 
principle of price, in addition to all its direct iniquity, stag- 
nates exchanges, interrupts or stops supplies, and involves 
every thing in uncertainty and confusion, discourages arrange- 
ment and order, and prevents division and exchange. 

Another great obstacle to division and exchange is the lack 
of some principle by which to settle the prices, or which would 
itself settle them harmoniously, instead of the disgusting pro- 



66 ECONOMIES. 

cess of "bargaining in every little transaction, which is so re- 
pugnant to good sense and good feeling that the best citizens 
are often induced to do without conveniences, or undertake to 
supply themselves to great disadvantage rather than enter into 
the degrading warfare which generally attends our pecuniary 
commerce. They will also afford to others little accommoda- 
tions gratuitously for the same reason — these lay the receiver 
under indefinite obligations, one of the worst forms of slavery. 
Gratuitous labor must necessarily be limited, and thousands 

vn of exchanges of great value, but little cost, would immensely 
increase the comforts of all parties, where cost, as a principle, 
measured and settled the price in every transaction, without 
words — without disturbing our social feelings and self-respect. 
Another great obstacle to the development of this branch 
of economy, is the uncertainty, the insecurity of every busi- 
ness. Men dare not make investments for carrying on busi- 
ness to the best advantage while the markets for their products 
are unsteady — where prices " rise at eight o'clock" and " fall 
at twelve." If prices were equitably adjusted by the cost 
principle, we should know, from year to year, from age to 

4 age very nearly, the prices of every thing — All labor being 

IV equally rewarded according to its cost, there would be no de- 
structive competition — Markets would be steady — then we 
might subdivide the different parts of manufactures to any ex- 
tent that the demand would justify at any time, and be safe, 
secure, and society would know the immense wealth to be de- 

ii rived from the division of labor. 

M Another great obstacle to extensive division of labor, and 
rapid and easy exchanges, seems to be the want of the means 
of effecting exchanges. We cannot carry our property about 
us for the purpose of exchanging. If we could do this, and 
give one thing for another at once, and thus settle every 
transaction, such a thing as money, or. a circulating medium, 
never would have been known ; but, as we cannot carry flour, 
shoes, carpentering, brick-work, store-keeping, etc., about us 
to exchange for what we want, we require something which re- 



ECONOMIES. 67 

presents these ; which representative we can always carry with 
us. This Representative of property should be our circulating 
medium. Theorists have said that money was this represent- 
ative, but it is NOT. A dollar represents nothing whatever 
but itself; nor can it be made to. At no time is it any 
demand on any one for any quantity of any kind of property 
or labor whatever. At one time a dollar will procure two 
bushels of potatoes, at another time three bushels, at another 
four, and different quantities of different persons at the same 
time. It has no definite value at any time, nor if it had, 
would its value qualify it for a circulating medium ; but, on 
the contrary, its value and its cost being inseparably united 
with its use as a representative, disqualifies all money for act- 
ing the part of a circulating medium : it should have but one 
quality, one individual, definite purpose, that of standing in 
the place of the thing represented, as a miniature represents a I 
person. Money represents robbery, banking, gambling, swin- 1 
dling, counterfeiting, etc., as much as it represents property ; 
it has a value that varies with every individual that uses it, 
and changes as often as it is used — a picture that would repre- 
sent at one time a man, at another a monkey, and then a 
gourd, would be just as legitimate and fit for a portrait, as 
common money is fit for a circulating medium. 

We want a circulating medium that is a definite representa- 
tive of a definite quantity of property, and nothing but a re- I 
presentative ; so that when we cannot make direct equivalent 
exchanges of property, we can supply the deficiency with its 
definite representative, which will stand in its place. And 
this should not have any reference to the value of property, 
but only to its cost, so that if I get a bushel of wheat of you, 
I give you the r^resentative of shoe-making, with which you 
should be able to obtain from the shoemaker as much labor 
as you bestowed on the wheat — cost for cost in equivalent 
quantities; and to effect 'these exchanges with facility, each 
one must always have a plenty of this representative on hand, 
or be able to make it on the occasion, and so adapt the supply 



68 ECONOMIES. 

of the circulating medium to the demand for it — a problem 
that never has yet been solved by any financiers in the world, 
nor ever will be while value is taken into account of price. 
The remark is common, that "if money was plenty we would 
purchase many things that we cannot for want of it." Here, 
no exchange takes place that otherwise would, and division 
will always be in proportion to exchange or sales. "Where 
there is no circulating medium, there cannot be much ex- 
change or division. On the other hand, where every one has 
a plenty of the circulating medium always at hand, exchanges 
and division of labor would not be limited for want of money. 
A note given by each individual for his own labor, estimated 
by its cost, is perfectly legitimate and competent for all the 

S3 purposes of a circulating medium. It is based upon the bone 
and muscle, the manual powers, the talents, and resources, 
the property, and property-producing powers of the whole peo- 
ple — the soundest of all foundations, and is a circulating me- 
dium of the only kind that ever ought to have been issued. 
The only objection to it is, that it would immediately abolish 
all the great money transactions of the world — all banks and 
banking operations — all stock-jobbing, money corporations, 
and money movements — all systems of finance, all systems 
of national policy and commercial corruption — abolish all dis- 
tinctions of rich and poor — compel every one to live and en- 
joy at his own cost, and would contribute largely to restore 
the world to order, peace, and harmony. 

10 Boarding-houses, hotels, etc., having no principle for the 
government of prices but whatever they can get, in the can- 
nibal competion of society, get whatever they can, and their 

iv inmates are only those who have no other homes. If cost 

19 were made the limit of price, as economy i#in favor of one 
set of preparations for great numbers, the cost being less in 
proportion to numbers, it would immediately become the in- 
terest of every one wanting board to co-operate with all 
others, to afford every facility in their power to get the great- 
est practicable number of boarders for such an establishment, 



ECONOMIES. 69 

and to afford every convenience, every facility for reducing 
the labor and trouble of conducting it, and each one doing 
this through self-interest, to reduce the cost of his own fare, 
would be promoting equally the interest of every other boarder 
— here would be co-operation, but no combination. They 
need have no compact with each other. The individual who i 
conducted the house, would be the only person with whom any 
contract need be made. Five hundred persons thus accommo- iv 
dated with five times better fare than common boarding- 
houses can now afford, would employ but one kitchen, instead 
of a hundred kitchens — perhaps five cooks, instead of a hun- 
dred, and the cost of board to each would, probably, not ex- 
ceed one fifth of that of keeping a private kitchen for five 
persons ! Families seeing this, would probably prefer such 
quarters, at least at meal-times, and thus relieve the females 
of the family, from the dull, mill-horse drudgery to which 
they otherwise are irretrievably doomed. 

One* person to keep a dairy in good ord^r (instead of fifty 10 
cows being scattered among fifty families, with fifty boys or iv 
men to hunt and drive them, badly housed, badly fed, and 
badly treated in the hurry of other domestic duties), is an 
arrangement that would naturally result from the economy 
that each would derive from the cost principle. 

A washing establishment conducted on the cost principle, iv 
would exhibit one of the most necessary divisions of labor, 10 
and relieve the house-keepers from the most irksome and re- 
pugnant of all their duties. The same principle and motives 19 
being brought to bear upon schools, the different branches of 
mechanism, and all social arrangements, would work in a sim- 
ilar manner — each in the pursuit of his own interest promot- 
ing the interests of all others. 

Machinery being made and worked on the cost principle, 13 
every one would be equally benefited by its construction and 
use — the more there was at work, the more would the burthen 
of labor be reduced to all. If it threw a certain set out of 18 
employment, they would turn immediately to other employ- 



70 EC02&MIES. 

ments, and thus reduce the labor still to be performed by hand. 

v Land being bought and sold on the cost principle, would be 
open to them at almost a nominal price. Board and clothing 

C being obtained at cost — all arts, trades, and mysteries being 
communicated for an equivalent of the labor of communicating 
them, and the rewards of all labor being equal according to 
its cost — a report of the demand being always accessible, so 
that they could know what to turn to, and where to find in- 
struction in any art, trade, or science, and a market for their 
products at a full, equivalent price, machinery might then be 
introduced without any limits but their wants, with benefits to 
all — with injury to none ! and who shall measure the yet un- 
told economies which might then result from machinery ! I 
have said without any limits but our wants, because an im- 
mense number of inventions are now brought out which are 
no improvements at all upon existing modes, and the country 
is overrun, and inventions disgraced by a surfeit of the pro- 
ductions of over-stimulated stupidity, for no other purpose 
than to escape from, unpaid labor and the punishments of 
poverty. 

A The want or demand for a machine would furnish the only 
reasonable motive for its construction, and an equivalent in 
labor and cost of materials would be the legitimate compen- 
sation to its inventor. This would afford no more induce- 

4 ments to invent machinery than to pursue any thing else that 
might be in demand — all things being equally paid, there 

vn would be no temptation to invent machinery that was not 
wanted, but the supply would be harmoniously adapted to the 
demand or wants of society. 

6 It is no uncommon occurrence, that food, clothing, etc., for 

33 which thousands are suffering, are destroyed to prevent prices 
from falling too low for the interests of speculators ! To save 
these from this kind of destruction, is the particular province 
of the cost principle ; which, while it destroys speculators 
themselves, delights in passing supplies from producer to con- 
sumer at the cheapest equivalent rates. 



ECONOMIES. 71 

Physicians wlio can get fifty dollars per day, while the most G 
useful labor is paid only fifty cents, cannot be expected to get 
us well while it would stop their income and drive them to an 
unpaid labor ; but fifty dollars a day will maintain them by 
working one day in fifty, or maintain fifty times as many doc- 
tors as the demand requires. The cost principle will adapt 
the supply to the demand, and destroy the temptation to keep 
us sick for the sake of the profit of it. 

Swarms of lawyers, office-holders, and office-seekers crowd iv 
the ranks of useless consumers, whose chief business it is to 
contrive means of keeping up the state of things by which 
they are exempt from unpaid labor, and enjoy a few of the 
privileges of freemen. Individualizing all business — commit- 
ting none to the management of government, and conducting 
all our business equitably with our fellow-men, on the cost 
principle, will sweep away all demand for them — will compel 
them to assist in reducing rather than increasing the burthen 
of labor, and paying all labor by equivalents will change even 
their condition for a better. 

Hordes of robbers, pirates, bankers, speculators, thieves, 
gamblers, pickpockets, swindlers, etc., who are driven into 
any thing to live, and to escape abused labor at starvation 
prices, may suddenly become useful citizens, when labor is 
properly paid, and assist in reducing rather than increasing 
the- burthen of labor. When the door to all trades and occu- 18 
pations is thrown open — when the demands or wants of so- 
ciety are made known — when any one can turn at any time 
to a choice of employment which will find a market at equiv- 
alent prices, and when any one may live on two or three 
hours' labor per day, where can any one find a motive to be 
a fungus upon society 1 

When we contemplate the immense piles of materials and rv 
mechanism in church paraphernalia — the armies of preachers 
and theological imposters, their type-setters, printers, their 
emissaries in every nook and corner of the world, all unpro- 
ductive, and only professing to counteract the vices of the 



72 ECONOMIES. 

present system, we see in these reasons enough for its total 
demolition. A direct v and equitable exchange between the 
present producers, would entirely cut them off from the 
means of existence. If it be true that the demand for these 
grow out of the vices of the present social state, these being 
cured, their occupation will be at an end ; and their transition 
to the productive and self-supporting class will not only put a 
stop to their excessive, wasteful consumption, but will im- 
mensely reduce the still remaining burthen of labor. 

iv Controversialists, and all who are employed by them, 
whether moral, religious, or political, are all engaged in prop- 
ping up, in pulling down, in repairing or counteracting the 
natural action of existing social elements. Their equitable 
and harmonious adjustment would relieve us of all these taxes 
upon our time and labor, which would be no small item of 
economy. 

6 Every thing being bought and sold for the greatest, profit 
the holder " can get" it becomes his interest to purchase every 
thing as cheap as possible ; the cheaper he purchases the more 

iv profit he makes. This is the origin of the present horrid sys- 
tem of grinding and destructive competition among all pro- 
ducers, who are thus prompted to under-work each other. 
Thus, too, it is, that there is scarcely any article of food, 
clothing, tools, or medicines, that is fit for use — that we are 
always purchasing to throw away, to be cheated out or our 
money and time, and be disappointed in our supplies. Re- 

12 sponsibility rests nowhere. The vender does not make them, 
but imports them from those beyond the reach of responsi- 
bility. Why is every thing imported, even shoes, tools, wool- 
en and cotton cloths? For profit. It is because things are 
not sold for their cost, but for whatever the holder can get. 

4 Were cost made the limit of price, the vender of goods 
would have no particular motive to purchase them at the very 
lowest prices that he could grind out from manufacturers; 
and they would, therefore, have no motive to under-work and 
destroy each other. There would be no more of each than* 



ECONOMIES. 73 

enough to supply the demand — no motive to import what 
could be made with equal advantage at home, and the manu- 
facturer would be obliged to assume the individual respotisi- 4 
bility of his work ; because where profit-making did not stand 
in the way, the merchant would not otherwise purchase of 
him ; and where land was bought and sold at cost, every man 
of business would own the premises where the work was 
done, and could not easily run away from the character of it ; 
and this must be kept good, or another would immediately 
take his place. Here, then, in the cost principle, is the means 4 
of rendering competition not only harmless, hut a great regula- 
ting and adjusting power, and under its mighty influence, should 12 
we not only escape national ruin from the excessive importa- 
tion of worthless articles, but should have good ones always 
insured, by their manufacturers being within reach of tangible 
responsibility. The scramble for unlimited profits in trade vn 
being annihilated by equitable exchanges between nations, the 
imports and exports would be naturally self-regulating, and 
limited to such as were mutually beneficial, and each would 
have a co-operating interest in the prosperity of the other. 
When this takes place, the armies and navies now employed iv 
in consuming and destroying, will be compelled to turn to vn 
producing, at least whatever they consume, and thus take off 
another crushing load from down-trodden labor. i 

Cost being made the limit of price, no bargaining, higgling, C 
and chaffering (so disgusting to every one), will stand in the vn 
way of a direct purchase at once of whatever any one wants. 
The price will be known from year to year, and will be paid 
without asking it, and the time now consumed in higgling and 
bargain-making will be harmlessly or usefully employed. 

Wars are, probably, the greatest of all destroyers of prop- 
erty, and they originate chiefly in two roots. First, for direct 
or indirect plunder ; secondly, for the privileges of governing. 
Direct plunder will cease when men can create property with 
less trouble than they can invade their fellow-creature's. In- 
direct plunder will cease with making cost the limit of price, 

7 



74 NATURAL WEALTH. 

Is* I thus cutting off all "profits of trade." The privileges of gov- 
erning will cease when men take all their business out of 
national or other combinations — manage it individually, deal 
equitably with each other, and leave no governing to be done. 
1° Every one having full pay for his labor, can afford the lux- 
uries of mechanism, commerce, and science. Each exchang- 
ing with the other for an equivalent as a settled principle, 
there could remain no inducement for a man, or a country, or 
a nation, to attempt to supply all their own wants to disad- 
vantage ; but, as under co-operative interests, every one would 
gain in proportion to the division of labor, this great element 
of economy would be carried to the very highest state of 
perfection. 

These are a few of the items of economy that appear as 
necessary consequences of equity among men ; others will sug- 
gest themselves to each mind as the subject is studied. 



(V.) TO OPEN THE WAY TO EACH INDIVIDUAL TO 
LAND AND ALL OTHER NATURAL WEALTH. 

i By natural wealth is here meant all wealth, so far as it is 

not the result of human labor. 
C The cost principle being made the limit of price, opens all 

this wealth to every one at once. 

Land being bought and sold on this principle, passes 

from owner to owner with no farther additions to prime cost 

than the labor of buying and selling it. If improvements 
C have been made upon it, their co:t only being paid, makes the* 
v natural wealth free and accessible to all without price. In 

this manner simple equity would free, not only public, but 

private lands, from the trammels of profit-making. If it could 
4 not be sold for profit, it would not be bought for speculation ; 

and, it cannot be sold for profit in competition with those who 



NATURAL WEALTH. 75 

will buy and sell it for an equivalent. Therefore, here is a 
power in simple equity which is perfectly irresistible to free 
all lands, and to keep them free — a power by which one per- 
son alone can open the land for miles around him, and make 
it accessible to all who require it. No power on earth can 
prevent him, and he can do it without sacrifice to himself. 

Metals in the earth are natural wealth, and the cost prin- v 
ciple would pass them to consumers at the cost of labor in 
digging, preparing, and delivering them. 

The inventor of a machine may put wheels, weights, and V 
levers together in a certain relation to each other, which may 
produce great and valuable results to the public, but this value 
is no measure for its compensation. The cost to him of put- 
ting them together, is his legitimate ground of price, while 
the qualities of a circle, the power of a lever, and the gravi- 
tating tendency of a weight are natural wealth, and are rightly 
the property of all ; and cost being made the limit of price, 
makes them accessible to all without price. 

Certain articles of medicine compounded together may save v 
life, and their value in this case would equal that of the life 6 
saved — upon this principle a dose of pills would be worth, 
perhaps, ten thousand dollars, but this is no reason for such a 
:>rice. The only rational price is an equivalent for the labor 
)f procuring the articles, putting them together, and the con- 
ingent expenses of vending them. The rest depends on the v 
nherent natural qualities of the ingredients, which are natural 
wealth, and should be . freely accessible to all without price ; 
nd this results from cost being made the limit of their price. 

A teacher of music may communicate the principles of ▼ 
omposition, which may be of great value to the receiver, but 
iris value is derived chiefly from the inherent qualities and 
elations of sounds to each other, upon which they depend for 
leir effect, and which are not of man's creating, nor has man 
ay right to make them the ground of price in communicating 
lem to others. If the teacher of music be paid for his labor 
i an equivalent only, then the natural wealth inherent in 






76 CO-OPERATION. 

musical elements, becomes accessible to all without price. 
The same may be said of all sciences, arts, trades, mysteries, 
and all other subjects of our commerce, whether pecuniary, 
intellectual, or moral. One may devote his time and labor 
upon an intellectual production, but who can measure its 
value ? this depends chiefly upon the new truths developed or 
communicated. It is its cost only that can be equitably made 
the ground of price, and when this is refunded by an equal 
amount of labor, equally repugnant or disagreeable, and 
equally costly in its contingencies, the writer is legitimately 
compensated — the rest is natural wealth. The cost principle 
draws a distinct line of discrimination between this and the 
wealth produced by labor, awarding to every one equivalents 
for cost, but for cost only ; while all natural wealth is thus 
rendered free and accessible to all without price ; which solves 
the fifth proposition of our social problem. 



(VI.) TO MAKE THE INTERESTS OF ALL TO CO- 
OPERATE WITH EACH OTHER, INSTEAD OF 
CLASHING WITH AND DESTROYING EACH 
OTHER. 

If cost is made the limit of price, every one becomes in- 
terested in reducing cost, by bringing in all the economies, all 
the facilities to their aid. But, on the contrary, if cost does 
not govern the price, but every thing is priced at what it wii 
bring, there are no such co-operating interests. This will be, 
self-evident to many, but to some minds a few illustrations 
may be necessary, in addition to what has already been saic 
relative to boarding-houses, etc. 
19 If I am to have my supply of flour at cost, then, any facil 
ity I can afford to the wheat grower, reduces the cost to m< 
and as it does the same for all who have any portion of the 



CO-OPERATION. 77 

wheat, I am promoting all their interests while pursuing my 
own. If I know that planting in drills produces more with 
less labor, it is my interest to communicate it, and have ex- 
periments-instituted. If I can construct a machine to save 19 
labor in planting, cultivating, harvesting, or grinding, it is for 
my interest, and that of all others, to co-operate in getting it 
into operation. If I see the fences down, exposing the wheat 
to the depredations of cattle, it is my interest, and that of all 
others, to have the breach repaired as soon as possible, be- 
cause all contingent losses become part of the cost. Now, if _ 
the wheat were not to be sold to us at cost, but at " what- 
ever it would hring" according to our necessities, then none 
of us would have any interest in affording facilities, repairing 
breaches, nor in any other way co-operating with the producer 
of it. The same motive would act in the production, pre- 
servation, and use of every thing. 

One or a few individuals may desire instruction in music. 19 
[f the teacher set his price at whatever he thinks he can 
make the students give, he may prevent them from making 
the attempt, and keep himself out of business — but if the 
zost of his labor be divided among the class, it immediately 
becomes the interest of each to get as many as possible, 
thereby reducing the cost to each; and the same would be 
seen in every operation of this description — and the same with 
riations as with individuals. 13 

If the products of machinery were sold at cost, it would 19 
then be for the interest of every one to afford any facilities in 
his power toward its construction and its operation, and in 
thus reducing cost for his own advantage, he would be equally 
promoting the interest of every one who used the products 
of the machine. Thus, then, upon the principle of cost be- 
ing made the limit of price, is the interest of all made to 
co-operate (but not to COMBINE with) the interest of each. 
Thus is solved the great problem of the individual good har- 
monized with the public good ! Thus does simple EQUITY 
outstrip the sagacity and the genius of man, and work out for 



78 CO-OPERATION. 

him the great problem of SOCIETY, WITHOUT THE 
DESTRUCTION OF LIBERTY ! 



In the preceding pages I have treated of the first six propo- 
sitions of our problem, and endeavored to show that the first 
(the just reward of labor), must be worked out by making 

i cost the limit of price. That the security of person and prop- 
erty demands the operation of this principle, together with the 

n admission of the right of sovereignty in every individual. 

hi That liberty demands the sovereignty of the individual. 
That the economies would naturally result from the operations 

iv of cost being made the limit of price. That, by the same 

v means, land, and all other natural wealth, would be legiti- 
mately accessible to all. That by making cost the limit 

VI of price, the interests of all mankind would co-operate for 
mutual benefit ; but I have deferred the consideration of the 
seventh and last proposition (withdrawal of the elements of 
discord, and the establishment of general harmony) to the 
following division, as this is rather the result of the working 
of all these elements together. 

I I have treated each principal division of our subject separ- 
ately and abstractedly, in order that the mind of the reader 
might be the more concentrated upon one individual element 
at a time, and not have his attention confused and weakened 
by a too close connection of different parts at first. But now 
that these may have become so familiar as not to require ex- 
clusive attention to either, I propose to associate these ele- 
ments of new society together, in their natural and practical 
order, and illustrate more fully their adaptation to their 
proposed ends. These elements are, first, Individuality ; 
second, the sovereignty of each individual ; third, cost 
the limit of price ; fourth, a circulating medium which 

SHALL BE A DEFINITE REPRESENTATIVE OF LABOR; fifth, THE 
ADAPTATION OF THE SUPPLY TO THE DEMAND OR WANTS. 



CO-OPERATION. 79 

I would suggest to the reader to refer continually to the 
marginal references, and to study and familiarize himself with 
each proposition that may be there marked — to compare these 
means with the ends to be attained, and to exercise his Indi- 
vidual judgment with regard to their adaptation to the solu- 
tion of the great questions which involve the deepest interests 
of every one, and which can no longer be deferred with safety 
to any. 



PAET III 



THE APPLICATION. 

ELEMENTS OF NEW SOCIETY. 

The first step to be taken by any number of persons in 
these practical movements appears to be, that each individual 
or head of a family, should consider his or her present wants, 
and what he can give in exchange, with a view to have them 
recorded in a book kept for that purpose. As soon as a 
movement is made by any one to this effect, a book will be 
wanted as a record of this report of wants and supplies. At 
this point, when this is evidently wanted enough to justify it 
A in the estimation of any individual, he or she can furnish and 
I keep such a book upon his or her individual responsibility. If 
the cost of this is sufficient to justify a demand for remunera- 
tion, the keeper of the book can make this demand, according 
C to the labor bestowed in each case, or otherwise, as he or she 
S shall decide — the voice of the majority having nothing to do 
with it. 

We will now suppose that the wanffe of twenty individuals - 
are recorded in one column of a boojc, and what they can 
A supply in another column ; and in another, the price per hour 
which each demands for his or her labor. These become the 
fundamental data for operations. 

Every one wishing to take some part in practical opera- 
tions, now has before him in this report of wants, the business 



THE APPLICATION. 81 

* to be done. It will immediately be seen that land is indis- 
pensible, and must be had before any other step can be taken to 
advantage. Some one seeing this want, after consulting the A 
wishes or demands of the co-operators, proceeds on his indi- I 
vidual estimate of this demand, at his own risk, and at his 
own cost, to purchase or otherwise procure land to commence 
upon, lays it out in lots to suit the demand, and sells them to 
the co-operators at the ultimate cost (including contingent ex- A 
penses of money and labor in buying and selling). The dif- 
ference # in the price of a house lot thus bought and sold, C 
compared with its price when sold for its value, will be found 18 
sufficient to make the difference between every one having a 
home upon the earth, instead of one half of men and women 
being homeless. 

We will now suppose the lots purchased and paid for by 
each one who is to occupy them. They will want to consult 
continually together, in order to co-operate with each other's 
movements ; this will require or demand a place for meetings. A 
As soon as this want is apparent, then is the time for some 
one to estimate this want, and take it on himself individually I 
to provide a room, and see himself remunerated according to 
cost, which cannot fail to be satisfactory to all in proportion as vn 
they are convinced that cost is the limit of his demands ; 
which he can always prove by keeping an account of expenses 
and receipts, open at all times to the most public inspection. 
— (See note A, in Appendix.) 

At this public room, provided each one is properly pre- 
served from the ordinary fetters of organization, all can confer 
with each other relative to their intended movements. If one 
has a suggestion to make to the whole body, he can find list- 
eners in proportion to the interest that each one feels in his 
proposition, and a decent respect to the right of every one to 
listen if he chooses, will prevent disturbances from the indif- 
ferent, just in proportion as the right of sovereignty in each S 
individual is made a familiar element of surrounding opinion. 
If one wished to propose a movement upon the land on a cer- 



82 THE APPLICATION. 

S tain day, after having made his proposals, every one should 
consider himself or herself the supreme law for himself or 
herself, and not to permit any vote of the whole body to rise 
above his or her individual estimate of their own convenience 
and advantage, nor to decide how far he or she should disre- 
gard either for the interest of others ; but having listened to 

S the wants and sentiments of others, as long as to him or her 
seems good, let each be the supreme deciding power for him- 
- self, but not for others. 

When business commences, the estimates of prices must 
commence, and the circulating medium will be wanted. For 
instance, if the keeper of the room for meetings has expended 
a hundred hours of his labor in keeping it in order, etc., and 
if there are twenty who have regularly or substantially re- 
ceived the benefits of it, then five hours' equivalent labor is 
due from each. 

M This calls for the circulating medium, and he may receive 
from the carpenter, the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the tailor- 

t . ess, the washerwoman, etc., their labor notes, promising a 
certain number of hours of their definite kinds of labor. The 
keeper of the room is now equipped with a circulating medium 
with which he can procure the services of either of the per- 
sons at a price which is agreed and settled on beforehand, which 
will obviate all disturbance in relation to prices — he holds a 
currency whose product to him will not be less at the " report 
of scarcity," nor " rise at 12 o'clock." From year to year, 
he can get a certain DEFINITE QUANTITY OF LABOR 
FOR THE LABOR HE PERFORMED, which cannot be 
said, nor made to be true, with regard to any money the world 
has ever known. 

An extraordinary feature presents itself in this stage of 
the operations of Equitable Commerce. When the washer- 
woman comes to set her price according to the cost or hard- 
ness of the labor compared with others, it is found that its 
price exceeds that of the ordinary labor of men ! Of course, 
the washerwoman must have more per hour than the vender 



THE APPLICATION. 83 

of house-lots or the inventor of pills ! To deny this, is to *^~ 
deny the very foundation of the whole superstructure ! We 18 
must admit the claims of the hardest labor to the highest re- 
ward, or we deny our own rights, extinguish the little light 
we have obtained, and throw every thing back into confusion. 
What is the obstacle to the honest admission and free action 
of this principle 1 What would be the ultimate result of car- 
rying it thoroughly out, and giving to every one what equity 
demands 1 It would result in surrounding everji one with an 
abundance, with peace, liberty, harmony, and security, and 
reduce the labor of each to two or three hours per day. — (See 
note B, in Appendix.) 

In a movement upon a new location, it would, be well for 
every one to be guarded against being swept along by the 
mere current of other's movements, without seeing how he is I 
to be sustained in his new position. 

The larger the purchases of lumber, provisions, etc., at 
once, the cheaper will the prices be to each receiver upon the 
cost principle, and these economies, together with the social 19 
sympathies, will offer the natural inducements for an associ- 
ated movement. But there is great danger that even these 
inducements will urge many into such movements prematurely A 
—we cannot be too cautious NOT TO RUN BEFORE 
THE DEMAND. Let no one move to an Equity Village, 
till he has thoroughly consulted the demand for his labor at 
that place, and satisfied himself individually, that he can sus- I 
tain himself individually. — (See Caution, Appendix.) 

Previously to any movement upon a new locality, it will 
probably be perceived, that a boarding-house would be neces- 
sary to accommodate the few pioneers until they could build 
for themselves. Instead of making this the business of the I 
whole association, some one Individual perceiving this want, 
can make it his business to provide one adapted to the de- A 
mand, by ascertaining how many persons are likely to require 
it, and what style of living they prefer. If these persons are 19 
satisfied that cost will be honestly made the limit of tlie price 



84 THE APPLICATION. 

of their accommodations, then every one will be interested in 
reducing this cost, by lending such articles of furniture as he 
can spare, by communicating any thing that will enable the 
keeper to purchase to advantage, and to transport provisions 
and materials, and to get up the establishment with as little 

I cost as possible ; but during all these operations every one's 
interest will be distinctly individual. The future keeper of the 

I house has the deciding power individually in every thing rel- 
ative to it, and each border makes his contract with the keeper ; 
but as no combination takes place, no vote of any majority 
is called upon until the boarders become so closely connected 
that each individual cannot exercise his individual taste — when 
all cannot be gratified, then it is, and not till then, that the 
will of the majority is the best practicable resort of the 
keeper ; but he must not surrender his individual prerogative 

I of management, even in this case, or all will be con- 
fusion. 

When this calls for too great a sacrifice from any one, the 

I remedy will be found only in disconnection from that board- 
ing-house, and a resort to another more congenial to his taste, 
or to private accommodations. In such case, there being no 
combination to consult, none but the one person* is put to in- 
convenience ; no other persons are disturbed. In this board- 
ing-house, if the keeper of it keeps an account of all his 
expenditures of money and labor, open at all times to the in- 

v spection of his boarders, and divides the cost among them, he 

vii cannot be charged with penurious management for his own 
profit, nor can any of the ordinary dissatisfaction from this 
cause disturb the general harmony. This arrangement is im- 
perfect, inasmuch as there is more or less of united interests in- 
volved in it. The perfect form (excepting in the principle of 
fixing prices), is found in the eating-houses in the cities, where 
any Individual can go at any time, and get any particular fare 
that suits his individual demands. He gratifies his own tastes 
at his own individual cost, and is not involved in expenses for 
others, and therefore there is no collision between any parties. 



THE APPLICATION. 85 

This perfect arrangement is practicable only in circles large 
enough to sustain it. 

In all business where money is used, it has been found ne- 
cessary to keep it entirely separate from labor, receiving I 
money, in the exchanges, for that which costs money, and 
labor for that which costs labor. The union of money with 
labor has been the great fundamental error. We now divorce, 
disconnect, individualize them, and in all running accounts I 
have one column for money, and another for labor — two dis- 
tinct accounts, and two distinct currencies, until a rational cir- M 
culating medium Can supplant money altogether. 

It will now be found necessary to ascertain the amount of 
labor required in the production of all those things which we 
expect to exchange. This naturally suggests itself to each 
one in his own business, and if all bring in their estimates, 
either at public meetings, or have them hung up in the public 
room, they become the necessary data for each individual to 
act upon. It is this open, daylight, free comparison of prices, 4 
which naturally regulates them ; while land, and all trades, 
arts, and sciences, will be thrown open to every one, so that he 
or she can immediately abandon an unpaid labor, which will 
preserve them from being ground by competition below 
equivalents. 

If A sets his estimate of the making of a certain kind of 30 
coat at 50 hours, and B sets his at 30 hours, the price per 
hour, and the known qualities of workmanship being the same 
in both, it is evident that A could get no business while B 
could supply the demand. It is evident that A has not given 
an honest estimate, or, that he is in the wrong position for the iv 
general economy; but he can immediately consult the report 18 
of the demand, and select some other business for which he 
may be better adapted. If he concludes to make shoes, his 
next step is to get instruction in this branch — he refers to the 
column of supplies, and ascertains the name and price per 
hour of the shoemakers — he goes to one of them, makes his 
arrangement for instruction, then provides himself with a 

8 



86 THE APPLICATION. 

room and tools, sends for his instructor, pays him according 
to the time employed, and becomes a shoemaker. Is this 
thought impracticable'? — (See note on Apprenticeships, in Ap- 
pendix.) 

The new shoemaker, having paid his instructor for his labor, 
has the proceeds of it, together with his own, at his own dis- 

18 posal, and if these be sold for equivalents, he will find his 
new apprenticeship quite self-sustaining. 

The same course will have to be pursued with regard to all 

A trades and professions — the supply must be adapted to the 
demand ; which demand should be continually made known 
at a particular place, by each one who wants any thing, while 
those who want employment will know where to apply for it, 
and what they can get in exchange ; and if one is not already 
qualified to supply some portion of the demand, he will be 
obliged to qualify himself, or fall back upon the land, and 
supply all his own wants, and be deprived of the advantages 
of division and exchange, or he must manufacture some ar- 
ticle that will sell abroad. 

We have now progressed far into practical operations with- 

1 out any combination or unity of interests. Every interest and 

I every responsibility being kept strictly individual, no legisla- 
tion has been necessary. There has been no demand for artifi- 
cial organization. There being no public business to manage, 

in no government has been necessary, and therefore NO SUR- 

S RENDER OF THE NATURAL LIBERTY HAS BEEN 
REQUIRED. 

25 Now, let us imagine one small item of united interests, and 
trace its consequences. We will suppose that A and B get a 
horse in partnership, to transport their baggage to the new lo- 
cation. The horse is taken sick — A proposes a medicine, 

I which B thinks would be fatal ; neither party has the power 
to lay down his own opinion and take up that of the other. 
These are parts of the individualities of each, which are per- 
fectly natural, and, therefore, uncontrollable. A brings argu- 
ments and facts to sustain his opinion ; B does the same, still 



THE APPLICATION. 87 

they differ, and the horse is growing worse. What is to be 
done 1 One dislikes to proceed contrary to the views of the 
other, and both remain inactive for the same reason. There 
is no deciding power, and the horse is growing worse ; what 
can they do but call a third party to act in behalf of both 1 
To this third party both commit the management of the horse, 9 
and surrender their right of decision — this third party is gov- 
ernment. This government cannot possibly decide both ways, 
and either A or B, or both, remain fearful and dissatisfied. 8 
The disturbance now extends itself to the third party, pro- 
ducing a social disease in addition to that of the horse. This 25 
is in the wrong direction. We must take another course — re- 
trace our steps — look into causes, and we shall find the wrong in 
the unity of interests. DISUNITE these — let A own the horse 1 
individually; then, if 'he is sick, A has the deciding power, 
listens to such council as he judges useful, and then proceeds 
to treat the horse. If the horse dies, A takes on himself the 
cost of his own decisions and acts, and the social harmony re- 31 
mains undisturbed. TO BE PERFECTLY HARMO- 
NIOUS, ALL INTERESTS MUST BE PERFECTLY 
INDIVIDUAL. 

Those who are most averse to collision with others, will 
find this an invaluable truth. Natural individualities admon- 
ish us not to be dogmatical on this or any other subject, but I 
to be careful not to construct any institutions which require 1 
rigid adherence to any man-made rule, system, or dogma of 
any kind ; to leave every one free to make any application, or vii 
no application, of any and all principles proposed, and to make 
any qualification or exception to them which he or she may 
incline to make, always deciding and acting at his or her own 30 
cost, but not at the cost of others. If the horse, in the above 
instance, should die under A's decision and treatment, while 
B held an interest in him, then A decides and acts partly at 25 
the cost of B, which is wrong and discordant. Let us now 
examine the motive for this partnership interest. Is it for 
economy 1 We have that secured in the operation of the cost 



88 THE APPLICATION. 

principle, and, therefore, united interest is unnecessary. Un- 
der the partnership interest, A and B would each have half 
the labor of the horse, and would bear half of his expenses. 
If cost were made the limit of price, and A owned him indi- 
vidually, and should let him work for B half of the time, the 
price would be half of his expenses — exactly the same result 

19 aimed at by the united interests. The difference is only, that 
the one mode paralizes action, is embarrassing and discordant, 
and, therefore, wrong ; while the other admits the freest ac- 
tion — works equitably toward both parties, is perfectly har- 
monious, and, therefore, right. 

Again; let any laws, rules, regulations, constitutions, or 
any other articles of association be drawn out by the most 
acute minds, and be adopted by the whole. As soon as action 
commences, it will be found that the compact entered into 

I becomes differently interpreted. We have no power to inter- 
pret language alike, but we have agreed to agree. New cir- 
cumstances now occur, different from those contemplated in 
the compact. New expedients are to be resorted to — lan- 
guage is the only medium of communication, and this is 
variously interpreted — two or more interpretations of the 
same language neutralize each other — an opinion expressed, 
is misunderstood, and requires correction — the correction con- 
tains words subject to a greater or less extent of meaning 
than the speaker intended — these require qualification. The 
qualification is variously understood, and requires explanation 
— the explanations require qualifications to infinity. Different 
opinions and expedients are now offered — all of which partake 
of the same elements of coufusion — counter opinions rise up 
on all sides — new expedients are proposed, all subject to va- 
rious interpretations and appreciations, all requiring explana- 
tions and qualifications, and these, in their turn, demand 
qualifications and explanations. Different estimates are form- 
ed of the best expedients, but there is no liberty to differ ; all 
must conform to the articles of compact or organization, the 

1 meaning of which can never be determined. Opinions, argu- 



THE APPLICATION. 89 

merits, expedients, interests, hopes, fears, persons, and person- 
alities, all mingle in one astounding confusion. All order is 
destroyed — all harmony has changed to discord. What is 
the origin of all this ? It is the different interpretations of I 
the same language, and the difference in the occasions of its 
applications, where there is not liberty to differ. A deep- 
seated, unseen, indestructible, inalienable individuality, ever 
active, unconquered, and unconquerable, is always directly at 
war with every demand for uniformity or conformity of thoughts 
and feelings. We ask again, what is to be done? As we 25 
cannot divest ourselves or events of natural individualities, 
there is but one remedy — this is, to AVOID ALL NECES- 
SITY FOR ARTIFICIAL ORGANIZATIONS ; which ne- 
3essity is founded in UNITED INTERESTS. 

One person 'becoming security for another, produces a unity 25 
of interest that infringes the liberty of one, and often destoys 
the harmony of both. If C becomes security for D, then C 
has an interest and a right to a voice in all D's movements 
and expenditures until this connected interest is at an end. 
As natural individualities will probably compel them to differ 
in opinions of business, and matters of convenience and taste, 25 
the ease and security of C, and the harmony of both, are at 
least in danger, while C is involved in D's movements or ex- 1 
penditures. Dissolve this united interest — let D act upon his 
own individual responsibility, at his own cost, and he canvu 
then, and not till then, " be the law unto himself." 

Exactly the same reasons apply against one person being 1 
in debt to another ; and it is only by settling every transac- vii 
tion in the time of it, either by equivalents or their representa- 
tive (such as the labor note), that the liberty, peace, and 
security of all parties can be preserved. Running accounts 
between any two persons are liable to be erroneous, from 
omissions and mistakes, which are entirely beyond the control 
of the best intentions ; but errors from these causes cannot 
be distinguished from those of design ; all these are elements 
of uncomfortableness and discord, which those who value so- 



90 THE APPLICATION. 

1 cial harmony will avoid, by making every transaction an in- 

vu dividual one — settling each in the time of it, when all its 
peculiarities are fresh in the minds of both parties. Once 
being settled to the satisfaction of both, nothing is left to 
the memory or the indefinite guess-work of the future, which 
is almost sure to produce dissatisfaction to one or both parties. 
A still more subtle, and more serious invasion of the rights 
of property, the natural liberty, and social harmony, is con- 
stantly at work in the form of indefinite obligations. If A 
lend B a hammer, it may be of great value to B, but no price 
is set upon it ; this is considered a neighborly accommodation, 
and common morality says, " neighbors should accommodate 
each other." The next day A applies to B for the loan of his 
favorite horse. B wishes to train his horse in a particular 
manner, and knows that h# cannot do this, if different people 
use him — besides, he wants to use him, or he wants him to 
rest, and no compensation is offered by A as an inducement. 
He evidently makes the request on the ground that " neigh- 
bors should accommodate each other ;" and on this ground B 
loses all proper control over his horse ; and, on the same prin- 
ciple, over every thing that he possesses which is not for sale ; 
so that, by this means, his proper control over his own be- 
comes almost annihilated. The cause is indefiniteness in our 
obligations. The remedy is definiteness in our obligations. 

1 Let every transaction be an individual one, resting on its own 
merits, and not mixed up or united with another. If A lends 

C B a hammer, and he thinks the cost of doing so is worthy of 
notice, let B pay it at once, or give a representative of an 

25 equivalent ; if it is unworthy of notice, it should be entirely 
disregarded, and never be mixed up with its value, nor referred 
to in future transactions. 

1 It is only by thus individualizing of our transactions and their 

vu elements, that each citizen can enjoy the legitimate control 
over his own person, time, or property. It is only by this 
means that we can distinguish a disinterested present, or act 
©f benevolence and sympathy, from one prompted by a mer- 



THE APPLICATION. 91 

cenary design. If we present a rose to a friend, it is under- 
stood to be an expression of sympathy — a simple act of moral 
commerce, and the receiver feels free from any obligation to 
make any other return than an expression of the natural feel- 
ing which immediately results therefrom ; but if one should 
give half of his property to another, the receiver could not 
feel equally free from future indefinite obligations. Why? 
Perhaps, not that the property was any more valuable to the 
receiver than the rose, but, that it cost more. 

A delicate regard to the rightful liberty of every one, and vn 
the necessity of self-preservation, would seem to admonish us 
to make cost the limit of gratuitous favors, while those of im- C 
mense value, which cost nothing, can be given and received 
without hesitation or reluctance, and will purify our moral 
commerce from any mixture with the mercenary or selfish 
taint, and carry it to the very highest state of perfection. 

We will suppose our practical operations so far progressed 
upon our new premises, as to require the establishment of a 
store. No one has money enough to stock one, and the 5 
sovereignty of each over his own at all times, seems to for- 
bid borrowing of each other, or one becoming security for 
another. The most harmonious mode will be found to be for vn 
the store-keeper to borrow money outside of these operations 
until borrowing is unnecessary. The next best resort, though 
not perfectly harmonious, but which may not be seriously dis- 
turbing, is for the store-keeper to borrow very small sums 
from the co-operators, giving them notes for the same, payable vn 
on demand, so that if any one, for any cause, wishes to with- 
draw his investment, he can do so, at any time, without words. 
The store-keeper then proceeds, like ordinary store-keepers, 
to purchase on his own responsibility and risk, whatever he I 
thinks is in demand, but he observes the time that he em- A 
ploys in purchasing, and on his return opens an account against 
the store for his labor and contingent expenses — placing the 
labor in one column and the money in another. He then 
considers what per centage will probably pay these and all 



92 THE APPLICATION. 

in other contingencies of the business, decides on this, and lets 

S it be as publicly known as possible ; preserving, however, his 
liberty to change it when he thinks necessary. We will sup- 
pose this to be six per cent, in money and fifteen minutes 
labor on each dollar's worth of goods, for expenses of travel- 
ing, purchasing, insurance, losses, dray age, etc., and all the 
labor of keeping the store, except that of dealing out the 

C goods. When he places them upon the shelves for sale, he 
marks them with these additions to prime cost, and places 
them in such a manner that customers can examine them, and 

1 know at once their prices, without taking up the time and at- 
tention of the keeper; but when the keeper deals out the 
goods he charges this item of his labor in each individual case, 

vii according to the time employed, which is measured by a 
clock. This arrangement sweeps away at once all the higgling 
and chaffering about prices, so disgusting in the present sys- 
tem, but which is inseparably connected with it. Perhaps 
when the habits engendered by it shall have been cured, the 
time of the keeper may be made up by regular installments ot 

14 each dealer, but, as things are, while one will purchase his sup- 
plies in large quantities another will purchase in small, while 
one will detain him an hour in higgling another knows better, 

30 and it seems necessary that the one should have the natural 
advantage of his better practice, and the other exercise his 
bad habits at his own cost. 

14 When the keeper receives pay for his goods and his labor, 
he records those receipts, by a short and easy method, before 
the eyes of his customers, and this record shows the amount 
received— ^say six per cent, in money, and a certain per cent, 
in labor. Say ten pounds of wheat on every dollar's worth of 
goods go to pay expenses, and an account of these expenses 
being balanced against these receipts, shows whether the keep- 
er receives more or less than an equivalent for his labor — if 
more, perhaps he will reduce it — if less, he must increase his 

vii per centage. He can do this perfectly harmoniously, if the 
customers are allowed to know the necessity of it, which they 



THE APPLICATION. 93 

can do, if the documents with the bills of purchase are habit- 
ually exposed upon the table at the public meetings, or in any 
other manner made public. — See note, Equitable Stores, Ap- 
pendix.) 

In all these operations the store-keeper acts entirely as an 14 
individual ; if he wishes for counsel, he will seek it of those I 
whom he thinks most capable of counseling. If he wishes to 
know the views of the whole on any point, he can obtain them 
at the public meetings, but having done so, he does not allow S 
the public voice to rise above his individual prerogative ; but 
paying as much deference to their opinions and wishes as he I 
judges best, he proceeds upon his own individual decision, vn 
always at his own risk, and all is harmonious. 

In a similar manner can manufactures and all other busi- S 
ness be conducted. If each individual is free to make any 
investment or to decline it — to invest one sum or another, ac- 
cording to his or her inclination in each case; and if the 
amount be so small as that the risk do not disturb the peace 
of its owner, and he is at liberty to withdraw it without words S 
or conditions whenever he may choose, one may use the prop- 
erty of another for the general interest, without much dis- 
turbance of the general harmony, provided it be made evident 
to all, that the means are used for the purposes intended, and 
on the cost principle. So much of connected interests may 
not be perfectly harmonious ; but the occasional discords may 25 
admonish us that the princple is wrong ; and like those of 
music, if not too frequent and out of proportion, may serve 
to set off the general harmony to more advantage. 

WORKING OF MACHINERY. 

If one person have not sufficient surplus means to procure 13 
machinery for a certain business, all will have an equal inter- 19 
est in assisting in establishing it, provided that each is satisfied 
that he will have its products at cost ; but if there is no limit 
to their price, then they can have no such co-operating in- 



94 THE APPLICATION. 

terest. The wear of the machinery and all contingent ex- 
penses, together with the labor of attendance, would constitute 
this cost. The owner of the machinery would receive nothing 
from the mere ownership of it ; but as it wore away, he would 
receive in proportion, till at last, when it was worn out, he 
would have received back the whole of his original invest- 
ment, and an equivalent for his labor in lending his capital 
and receiving it back again. Upon this principle, the benefits 
of the labor-saving powers of the machinery are equally dis- 
persed through the whole community. No one portion is 
benefited at the cost of another. If one portion is' thrown 
out of employment by it, the land, and all arts and trades, 
and professions being open to them, so that they are easily and 
comfortably sustained during a new apprenticeship, they are 
not only not injured, but benefited by new inventions of 
which they receive their share of the advantages, while they 
turn and assist in reducing the labor still to be performed by 

4 hand ; but (cost being made the limit of price) NOT THERE- 
BY REDUCING ITS REWARD. Those engaged in these 
pursuits will now have less employment, but having their share 
of the natural wealth of the machinery, they have, in the 

13 same proportion, less demand for employment; in other words, 
THE BURTHEN OF THEIR LABOR IS REDUCED 
IN PROPORTION TO THE INTRODUCTION OE MA- 
CHINERY. Thus, cost being made the limit of price, solves 
the great problem of machinery against labor. 

5 Rents of houses, lands, etc., being limited and determined 
by the same principle, those who have surplus time or means 
to invest for accumulation, by adapting the supply to the de- 
mand, can not only make safe investments for themselves, 
but at the same time be providing houses and homes for the 

in homeless, with the exercise of nothing but simple equity, 
which does not lay the receiver under indefinite obligations 
(the worst of slavery), nor does it diminish one particle the 
rightful accumulations of the first party ; but, on the contrary, 
having laid up ten thousand hours' labor in houses or ma- 



THE APPLICATION. 95 

chinery, and receiving the amount of its depreciation as it 
wears out, he receives, at last, ten thousand hours which he 
originally invested. He lives then only upon his own accumu- 
lations — lives at his own cost — not at the cost of others who 
are immensely benefited by the value of his investments, 
while he is, perhaps, equally benefited by the division and 
exchange of labor, and all other social commerce with them. 



A proper regard to the Individualities of person's tastes, 
etc., would suggest that hotels be occupied by such persons 
as are most agreeable to each other ; therefore, children gen- 
erally, as well as their parents, would be much more comfort- 
able not to be so closely mixed up as they would be in a 
boarding-house with their parents. The connection is already, 
even in private families, too close for the comfort of either. 
Disconnection will be found the real movement for the happi- 
ness of both ; and hotels for children, according to the pecu- 
liarities of their wants and pursuits, would follow of course. 
I have seen Infant Schools, in which one woman attended 
twenty children not above two years old, and where the chil- 
dren entertained each other ; taking most of their burthens 
on themselves, to infinitely more advantage to themselves 
than the best mothers could have conferred, and, perhaps, fif- 
teen mothers were thus relieved from the most enslaving por- 
tion of their domestic labors. And if such institutions were I 
opened and conducted by individuals upon individual responsi- 
bilities (instead of combinations), and upon the cost principle, 19 
every mother and father, and every member of every family, 
would be deeply interested in promoting the convenience 
and reducing the cost of such establishments, and in taking 
advantage of them. Instead of the offensive process of legis- 
lating upon the fitness of this or that person for those sit- 
uations, which is rendered necessary in a combination, any 
individual who thought that he or she could supply the de- 



96 THE APPLICATION. 

mand, might make proposals, and the patronage received 
would decide, This would be an entirely individual move- 
ment, there would be no use for laws, governments, or legis- 
lation, but there would be co-operating interests. Every 

19 mother would be free to send her child or not, according to 
her individual estimate of the proposed keeper, the arrange- 
ments, and the conditions; and it would, therefore, be a 

vii peaceful process ; whereas, if every mother should be requir- 
ed by a government, or laws, or public opinion, to send her 
children, without the consent of her own individual approba- 
tion, we might expect what we always experience in combina- 
tion — resistance, discord, and defeat. The Individual " is by 
nature a law unto himself" or herself, and if we ever attain 
our objects, this is not to be overlooked or diregarded. 

education. 

What is education ? What is the power that . educates 1 
With whom will we trust the fearful power of forming the 
character and determining the destinies of the future race 1 

Every thing we come in contact with educates us. The 
educating power is in whatever surrounds us. If we would 
have education to qualify children for future life, then must 
education embrace those practices and principles which will 

7 be demanded in adult age. If we would have them prac- 
tice equity toward each other in adult age, we must sur- 
round them with equitable practices, and treat them equit- 
ably. If we would have children respect the rights of prop- 

}S erty in others, we must respect their rights of property. 
If we' Would have them respect the individual peculiarities 
and the proper liberty of others, then we must respect their 
individual peculiarities and their personal liberty. If we 
would have them know and claim for themselves, and award 
to others the proper reward of labor in adult age, we must 
give them the proper reward of their labor in childhood. 
If we would qualify them to sustain and preserve themselves 



THE APPLICATION. 97 

in after life, they must be permitted to sustain and preserve 
themselves in childhood and in youth. If we would have 
them capable of self-government in adult age, they should 
practice the right of self-government in childhood. If we 30 
would have them learn to govern themselves rationally, with 
a view to the consequences of their acts, they must be allowed 
to govern themselves by those consequences in childhood. 
Children are principally the creatures of example — whatever 7 
surrounding adults do, they will do. If we strike them, they 
will strike each other. If they see us attempting to govern 
each other, they will imitate the same barbarism. If we hab- S 
itually admit the right of sovereignty in each other, and in 
them, then they will become equally respectful of our rights 
and of each other's. All these propositions are probably self- 
evident, yet not one of them is practicable under the present 
mixture of the interests and responsibilities between adults, 
and between parents and children. To solve the problem of 
education, children must be surrounded with equity, and must 
be equitably treated, and each and every one, parent or child, 
must be understood to be an individual, and must have his 
or her individual rights equitably respected. — (See Appendix, 
article Education.) 

AMUSEMENTS AND INSTRUCTION. 

These, of course, would keep pace with the demand for A 
them. Any one who perceives that balls, concerts, reading- 
rooms, etc., can be sustained, can open rooms for one or more 
of these purposes, charging for admission sufficient to pay for 
his labor and contingent expenses, and by taking in payment 
the circulating medium, of which every one may .have an 
abundance, these institutions can be sustained at an early stage 
of the progress. Lectures on any subject can be obtained at 
little cost to each one of a class, when cost is made the limit 
of price for the room, lecture, attendants, etc. 

9 



98 THE APPLICATION. 



NATURAL ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY. 

It would, probably, not be advisable for less than thirty 
families to commence these operations; because, less than 
about this number could scarcely commence the exchanges, 
so as to derive much economy from them. For instance, 
two families could not sustain a shoemaker, nor a carpenter, 
an iron worker, nor any other indispensable profession. Thir- 
ty families might sustain some of them, by which means 
each could have the benefits of all. Six families could not 
sustain a storekeeper — probably not less than thirty could. 
If fifty families commenced together, the economies would be 
greater ; a hundred families greater still, and they would be 
great in proportion to the size of the circle, until it became 
too large for interchange and correspondence ! 

We have supposed a few pioneers to have advanced upon our 
new premises, and these probably would embrace one or two 
carpenters, perhaps a shoemaker, an iron-worker, housekeeper, 
etc. When they have commenced their operations, they will 
probably see what is wanted there or in the surrounding neigh- 
borhood. If the location is sufficiently near a city to afford 
a market for surplus labor, the co-operators can divide their 
time between the two places ; otherwise the greatest caution is 
necessary in the coming together, and the growth must be slow 
in proportion to the want of a sustaining demand. If some 
branches of business, such as stereotyping, publishing, etc., 
were commenced, the product of which will sell abroad, then 
any number, within the demand, can safely assemble at once 
after having provided their first accommodations. When 
they have arrived with their families, perhaps another carpen- 
ter can be sustained — when he and his family arrive, perhaps 
another mason can find sufficient employment. If each of 
these continually record their wants in the report of demands 
and supply, then any one wishing to know whether he can be 
sustained has only to get some one on the premises to consult 



conclusion. 99 

this record, from which he can judge for himself. In this 
manner, one after another can be added to the circle, till those 
living in its circumference are too remote from the boarding- 
house, the schools, and the public business of different kinds ; 
then another commencement has to be made, another nucleus 
has to be formed, and thus in a safe and natural manner may 
the new elements extend themselves toward the circumference 
of society. Commerce, on these principles, will be proposed 
with individuals in foreign countries, which may give rise to 
similar beginnings in different parts of the world, each nucleus vn 
extending its growth outward till the circles meet — obliterat- 
ing all national lines, national prejudices, and national inter- 
ests, and in a safe, natural, and rapidly progressive manner 
reorganize society — and harmonize the interests and feelings 
of all mankind. 



CONCLUSION. 



I have stated the problem to be solved, I have suggested 
the means of its solution, and endeavored to exhibit their ap- 
plications in a manner to reach the plainest understanding. I 
have carefully withheld comments of my own, that the mind 
of the reader might sit in free and unbiased judgment in each 
case, and on every point of our subject ; and I now respect- 
fully, but earnestly, invite him or her to study the adaptation 
of these means to their proposed ends, and to decide whether 
or not the problem is fully and correctly stated — whether or 
not the means proposed are adequate to the solution of that 
problem — whether or not I am correct in the following con- 
clusions : 

That cost is an equitable, and the only equitable principle 
for the government of prices in the pecuniary commerce of 
mankind. 



100 - CONCLUSION. 

That this being reduced to practice, would give to labor its 
legitimate reward, and its necessary and natural stimulus. 
That it would convert the present clashing interests of man- 

vn kind into co-operating interests, and thereby sweep away the 
principal cause of national prejudices and national wars — 

iv would destroy all motive in the masses to invade each other 
— all necessity for armies, navies, and other paraphernalia for 

in national defense, and thereby neutralize the principal excuse 
for government — that by infusing into the public mind, cor- 
rect and practical principles which will give a clear knowledge 

ii of the rights of each other, and at the same time raise every 

in one above the temptation to violate them, we can put an end 
to the other excuse for governmental "protection."''' 

ii That by dispensing with government we shake off the 
greatest invader of human rights, the nightmare of society. 
That cost being made the limit of price, would give to a 

i washerwoman a greater income than the importer of foreign 
goods — that this would entirely upset the whole of the pres- 

vn ent system of national trade — stop all wars arising out of the 
scramble for the profits of trade, and demolish all tariffs, du- 

1 ties, and all systems of policy that give rise to them — would 

i abolish all distinctions of rich and poor — would enable every 
one to consume as much as he produced, and, consequently, 
prevent any one from living at the cost of another, without 
his or her consent. 

ii That it would prevent the ruinous fluctuations in prices, 
and in business, which are the chief elements of insecurity, 
and which give rise to the unprincipled scramble for property 
so prevalent in all civilized countries, in which, in the very 
midst of the most clamorous professions of righteousness, the 
rights of persons, of property, and the great interests of the 
whole race are practicably forgotten or disregarded. 

That upon this principle the great problem of machinery 
against labor is mathematically and harmoniously solved — and 
that no other principles or modes of action can thus solve it. 
That upon this principle the disgusting and degrading features 



CONCLUSION. 101 

of our pecuniary commerce would he changed, and men could 
exchange their products with each other without degrading 
their own characters and destroying their self-respect in the 
operation. 

That this principle is indispensable to the security of person vn 
and property — that it would put an end to the scramble for • 
property, which gives rise to encroachments on each other, to 27 
restrain which, government is invented and invoked — that 
these governments, instead of securing the rights of person 
and property, prove in their operations the greatest violators 
of all rights, and that we must work out the security of per- 
son and property without governments. 

That cost being made the limit of price, would necessarily 33 
produce all the co-operation, and all the economies aimed at 
by the most intelligent and devoted friends of humanity ; and, 
by reducing the burthen of labor to a mere pastime or neces- 
sary exercise, would probably annihilate its cost ; when, like 
water or amateur music, no price would be set upon it ; and 
the highest aspirations of the best of our race would be nat- 
urally realized. 

That the security of person and property demands that S 
every one shall feel secure from any external power rising 27 
above him, and controlling his person, time, or property, or 
involving him in responsibilities, contrary to his own individ- 
ual inclination — that he must feel that he has, and always 
shall have, his own destiny in his own hands — that he shall 
always be sovereign of himself and all his own interests — 
that this sovereignty of the individual is directly opposed to 27 
all external or artificial government. That this sovereignty 
of the individual is impracticable in national, State, Church, 
or reform combinations; and that combination is, therefore, 
exactly the wrong condition for the security, peace, and liberty 1 
of mankind. That the true movement for the attainment of 
these ends, is for each individual to commence immediately 
to disconnect his person and all his interests from combina- 
tions of every description, and to assume the entire control S 



102 CONCLUSION. 

of them as fast as they can be sufficiently separated from 
others, so that he can control his own, WITHOUT CON- 
TROLLING THEM. 

M That a rational circulating medium, a definite representative 
of property on equitable principles, has never been known to 
mankind — that all the great money transactions of the world, 

M all banks and banking operations, all stock-jobbing, all money 
corporations and money movements, all systems of finance, 
and all the money business of the world, have been based 
upon shells, metals, and pictures ; things which are no better 
qualified for a circulating medium, than a floating log is fit for 
a boundary of a piece of land. That all the legislative action 
on this subject has been conducted in the most profound ig- 
norance of what a circulating medium should be, or legislators 
have abused their trust, and sold the people to their enemies. 
That a rational and equitable circulating medium, together 
with cost as the limit of price, would strike at the root of all 
political, commercial, and financial corruption, and contribute 
largely to establish equity, security, liberty, equality, peace, 
and abundance, wherever it shall be introduced. 

1 That all INTERESTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES 
MUST BE ENTIRELY INDIVIDUALIZED, before the 
legitimate liberty of mankind can be restored — before each 
one can be sovereign of his own without violating the sov- 
ereignty of others. That the sovereignty of every individual 
is not only indispensable to security, but constitutes the nat- 
ural liberty of mankind, and must be restored back to each, 
before society can be harmonious. That the sovereignty of 
the individual becoming a new element in public opinion, and 
thereby constituting each the supreme deciding power for 

vn himself at all times, would put an end to all discordant con- 
troversies on ALL SUBJECTS — disarm all laws and govern- 

ii ments of their desolating power ; and, that with an habitual 

33 regard to this right in every one, no one's time or attention 
would be taken up, nor their thoughts or feelings disturbed, 
against his or her inclination, and that our social intercourse 



CONCLUSION. 103 

would thus become purified, refined, and exalted, to the very 
highest conceivable state of perfection. 

That the natural tendency of these new elements of society vn 
is to abolish all the cause of crimes, and all the horrid inven- 
tions for punishment, and to take away the last excuse of men 
for their insane cruelty to each other. That the sovereignty in 
of the individual constitutes the largest liberty to each indi- 2 
vidual — that liberty defined and limited by others is slavery. 
That every one has an inalienable right to define this and all 
other words for himself or herself, and, therefore, that no one 
has any right to define them for others ; and, therefore, that 
all verbal institutions which demand conformity in their inter- 
pretations are as false in principle as they have proved per- 
nicious in practice. 

That the great problem of education has never been prac- 29 
tically solved, nor can it be solved upon any of the principles 
upon which society is now acting ; but, that the study of nat- 
ural individualities, with these natural deductions from them, 
point out a solution at once simple, truthful, beautiful, and 
sublime. 

Finally, that the five elements of new society herein set 
forth, together with other modern discoveries and inventions, 
are capable, if reduced to practice, of " adjusting, harmoniz- 
ing, AND REGULATING THE PECUNIARY, INTELLECTUAL, AND 

moral intercourse of mankind," and of elevating the con- 
dition and character of our race to the fulfillment of the 
highest aspirations and purest hopes of the most devoted 
friends of humanity. 



THE PRACTICABILITY. 



With regard to the practicability of our propositions, every I 
one will form his own individual estimate of this. A few 
have practical proofs which others have not. Different esti- 



104 CONCLUSION. 

mates will be formed on internal evidences, and this part, at 
least, of our subject (individuality), is practically at work, 

1 and demonstrates itself. If every one is free to differ, and no 
attempt is made to change any one's views or action against 
his inclination, another practical step is gained ; but with re- 
gard to the movement as a whole, it is addressed, first of all, 
to the noble few whose intellects and hearts have not been 
destroyed by the prevailing cannibalism of the world, and 
whose last hope has not become entirely extinguished by the 
repeated failures of enterprises having similar objects in view. 
It is confidently believed that a few such persons can be 
found, who, by making a commencement, will immediately 
start a power into existence which is perfectly irresistible by 
the strongest opposers of reformation — a power, to which all 
their opposition, all their deep-laid plans, their wordy warfare, 
their bitterest hostility, must become as chaff before the wind 

4 —this power is COMPETITION. The competition of Equit- 
able Commerce invades no one's right of person or property — 
it reduces no one's labor below equivalents, but it will bring 
every one to this position in defiance of any resistance that 
may be offered. 

4 No one can sell house lots for five thousand dollars, while 
any one will sell them of equal value for five dollars ; and 
one person can buy and sell all the lots required by thous- 
ands. No one can sell coffee at sixteen cents a pound, where 
any one will sell it equally good for ten cents ; and one per- 

)'' son can sell coffee and sugar to thousands. No one can get 
five dollars per hour for visiting the sick, when another, whose 
services are equally valuable, can be obtained for an equiva- 
lent. No lawyer can get a hundred dollars per hour, when 
another will do the business as well for an equal amount of 
labor. 

yjf If it be objected that the first beginnings cannot be made, 
we meet this with the fact, that there is no branch of neces- 
sary knowledge that is not now accessible immediately to 
those who want employment ; and that in the professions 



CONCLUSION. 105 

mentioned, the durations of the customary apprenticeships, do 
not generally equal those of the cabinet-maker, the iron-work- 
er, or the carpenter ; and that where profit is not made by 
concealment and mystery, any demand can be very readily 
supplied ; and that any number of any profession (which is 
likely to be wanted) can be qualified in from two to three 
years. 

Competition is an element of society so well known and 
understood, that no illustration is necessary to show that where 
one person will deal more for the interest of the public than 
another, he will get all the business, or others must come to 
his prices, and that in this position one person can wield an 
immeasurable power. The competition of Equitable Com- 
merce exerts this power upon all professions that are paid 
above equivalents; and the natural propensity for self-pre- 
servation, raises those below up to equivalents. The power 
of money itself, which wields all other powers, must sink into 
imbecility in competition with a rational circulating medium, 
and those who possess the most money, may suddenly find 
themselves the most powerless and most dependent of men. 

It is folly for any parties to hope any longer to delay the 
general emancipation and natural equality of the race. The 
ostrich, who hides his head in the sand, while his body is ex- 
posed to the huntsman, does not exhibit a more fatal self-con- 
ceit than those who expect that rank, name, money, political 
power, or Jesuitical craft can any longer exempt them from 
the great, the harmonious destiny of humanity. 



It has now become a very common sentiment, that there is 
some deep and radical wrong somewhere, and that legislators 
have proved themselves incapable of discovering or remedy- 
ing it. 

With all due deference to other judgments, I have under- 
taken to point out what seems to constitute this wrong, and 



106 CONCLUSION. 

its natural, legitimate, and efficient remedies ; and shall con 
tinue to do so wherever and whenever the subject receives 
that attention and respect to which its unspeakable import- 
ance appears to entitle it ; and it is hoped that some who are 
capable of correct reasoning will undertake to investigate, and 
(if they can find a motive) to oppose Equitable Commerce, 
and thereby discover and expose the utter imbecility — the 
surprising weakness of any opposition that can be brought 
against it. Opposition, in order to be noticed, must be 
confined to this subject, and its natural tendencies, DIS- 
CONNECTED from all others, and all merely personal con- 
siderations. 

To those who have neither eyes to see nor hearts to feel, I 
quote the words of Rouvray, announced in St. Domingo only 
a few months before the streets were choaked with conflict 
and corpses, and running with human gore : " Learn," said 
he, " that indecent clamor may force to silence, but will never 
refute true reasoning, founded upon the authority of existing 
facts or true history. One day, perhaps, the cries of scorn 
with which you repay the announcement of important truths 
will be changed to tears of blood." 

My most anxious hope is that this prophecy may not prove 
applicable to all civilized countries. 

I decline all noisy, wordy, confused, and personal controver- 
sies. This subject is presented for calm study, and honest in- 
quiry ; and, after having placed it fairly before the public, I 
shall leave it to be estimated by each individual according to the 
peculiar measure of his understanding, and shall offer no vio- 
lence to his individuality, by any attempt to restrain or to urge 
him beyond it. 

Josiah Warren. 

New Harmony, Indiana, U. S., 1846 



APPENDIX. 



(a.) The circulating medium used in Equitable Commerce has been 
a simple note for a certain number of hours' labor of a definite kind ; 
one form is as follows: DUE TO BEARER ON DEMAND, TEN 
HOURS' LABOR IN CARPENTER WORK— signed by the individual 
who is responsible for its redemption.* As it is necessary to measure I 
and compare the price of this with other labor, we use, as before men- 
tioned, one common idea as a rule of comparison. Having ascertained 
that corn costs, in a certain location, on an average, two minutes' labor 
for each pound, then, if the carpenter considers his labor equally 
costly with that of raising corn, he signifies it by attaching the number 
of pounds of corn which would be the product of ten hours — thus : 
Due to the bearer, ten hours' labor in carpenter work, or three hun- 
dred pounds of corn. This addition to the note enables us not only I 
to compare one labor with another, but it gives the signer of it an 
alternative in case it is not convenient for him to give his labor on de- 
mand, and there can be as many of these alternatives (all being equiv- 
alent to each other) as the' responsible person may choose to attach to in 
his note. 

If a shoemaker thinks his labor not so costly as the raising of corn 
(as he can work all weathers, and with less wear of clothing and tools), 
by one quarter, then he can give his note for ten hours' labor in shoe- 
making, or two hundred and twenty-Jive pounds of corn, which is one 
quarter less for the same time. 

In dealing out goods in a store, only about one half of the time of i 
the keeper can be actually counted, even while he is the most busily 
employed ; so that, if he considers this labor equivalent to the raising 

* This may be worked into the semblance of a bank note, or any other form that A 
fancy may dictate. 



108 APPENDIX. 

of corn, he must charge as much for one hour actually employed, as 
will compensate for two hours — thus : Due to the bearer on demand 
ONE hour in merchandizing, or SIXTY pounds of corn. Thus, the 
I unavoidable loss which constitutes one half of the cost of this part 
of his business, is made up by each customer in proportion to the bu- 
siness he transacts. 

In this manner any degree of comparison can be carried out, each 
individual being the only deciding power for the estimate of his own 
labor, and competition being the regulator of all. The reasons we 
give, why competition does not work any one below equivalents, are — 
I first, that the idea of comparative cost is admitted by public opinion to 
S be a correct and the only correct standard for the limit of price, and 
4 it becomes a new element of society, furnishes new data for judgments, 
and then each one is naturally influenced by it ; and, secondly, because 
every thing being bought and sold for cost, the merchant has no mo- 
tive to purchase at a price below equivalents ; and, thirdly, because all 
business being thrown open by the cost principle to those who want 
employment, any one can abandon an unpaid labor, and resort to any 
other, until all are equalized. 

{Apprenticeships.) — When any persons are thrown out of employ- 
ment by the introduction of machinery, or when, from any other cause, 
there is no demand for their labor, it becomes necessary for their self- 
32 preservation that they turn to some other employment. At this point, 
the apprenticeships established by custom, stand directly in the way, 
and constitute the principal obstacle to this necessary change. During 
the nineteen years of the study and experiments of Equitable Com- 
merce, it has been one principal object to test practically the necessity 
of these apprenticeships ; the result of these tests are on record for 
publication, if necessary; but, perhaps, it is sufficient to DENY, in 
general terms, their necessity, and to refer every one to his own ex- 
perience, or to that of his acquaintance, when proof will start up on 
all sides, that they are a relic of ancient barbarism, totally unworthy 
a free and self-sustaining people. No new proposition of equal im- 
portance is more susceptible of proof than this. And at least one half 
of all the pursuits now monopolized by men, can be quite as success- 
fully performed by women, who are now confined by custom and 
craft to one or two pursuits, in which competition has ground them to 
18 beggary and starvation. If a new sense of equity, of humanity, does 
not immediately render to them an equivalent for their labor, the com- 
petition of Equitable Commerce will do it. Xet women and all others 
whose labor is unpaid, abandon their pursuits and turn to others that 
will command an equivalent, which they can do when all kinds of in- 
struction can be obtained on the cost principle, and where the prices 



APPENDIX. 109 

of board, clothing, and every thing else are limited in the same man- 
ner. Under these circumstances, a few hours or days instruction sub- 
stitutes years of the customary apprentice slavery, and, be it more or 
less, the learner, besides paying his or her instructor equitably for his 
labor, can sustain himself or herself from the beginning to the end of 
it, provided the products are sold for equivalents. 

Any one wishing to learn a new business, consults the reports of A 
demand and supply, and looking under the head of supply, sees who 
advertises to teach that business ; then, having provided his or her 
place for business, calls on the instructor, gets his advice relative to 
tools and materials, and when all is ready, the instructor comes and 
gives the necessary instruction ; the learner or employer pays him for 
his labor, and has all the products of it. 

This is an extremely interesting and a fundamental branch of refor- 
mation, and nothing short of practice can disclose the immense wealth 
that lies buried under the barbarous rubbish of the seven years' ap- 
prenticeships. 

(A.) It is the evidence that each one has, that cost is and will be 
made the limit of price, that establishes harmonious relations and en- 
sures co-operation. Pledges are no evidence to this effect, but they III 
violate the legitimate liberty of those who make them, and are liable 
to become elements of discord. In the experiments of the Equitable 
stores, boarding-house, and other operations of Equitable Commerce, 
the conductors of them made all the bills of purchase public by hang- 
ing them up to view, exposing them at public meetings, and on all 
occasions attracting attention to the cost of every thing; so, that com- 
mon knowledge soon became a sufficient guard against even the sus- 
picion of deviation from the principle ; and this was done, not in g 
obedience to any vote of any combination, but as the only known 
means of accomplishing the object in view. 

■ (Caution.) — It is, perhaps, impossible for any one without expe- 
rience to know the conveniencies and necessaries that they leave be- 
hind them when they abandon a city life and go beyond the reach of 
them. Experience on this subject has taught a lesson at once too 
costly and too valuable to be forgotten or withheld. It is, not on any 
account to make new beginnings too remote from cities or large towns, 
but to keep within, say an hour's travel of some one, as a mart for 
little supplies that never can be anticipated, and as a market for sur- 
plus labor, which must be exchanged for that which cannot be produced 
tin the commencement of new operations. 

I have already given a word of caution against being hurried on by \ 
the current of others' movements into a new position, in which we might 
not find a sustaining demand for our labor, and I would here add, 

10 



110 APPENDIX. 

that we may commit as great an error by yielding to the influence of 
surrounding customs, or to the fears and prejudices of friends ; but 
having ascertained what we want, and that this movement promises the 
supply in a manner to be depended on, I know of no better course than 
to sit in judgment, as an individual, on all counsels, and then to act, 
each on his own individual estimate, on his own responsibility, and at 
his own cost. 



EDUCATION. 

Treatment of Children upon Equitable Principles.— My little 
daughter was between seven and eight years old when I commenced 
the application of these principles to her education, thus : 

I asked her to come into a room by ourselves, where we might be 
FREE from interruption. After seating ourselves, I said to her: 
" M., you may not be old enough to understand all that I should like 
you to know upon what I am going to speak to you of, but, perhaps, 
you can understand enough for the present purpose. 

" You know that you eat and drink every day, that you have clothes, 
that you live in a house, that you sit by the fire, have books, play- 
things, attendance when you are sick, etc. ; and yet, you cannot make 
any kind of food, you cannot make any part of your clothing — no part 
of the house you live in, nor the fire- wood ; these must be made for 
you by others, and how do you get them ? Do you know how you get 
them?" " I get them from you and mother," said she. "Yes, and 
how do you think we get them ? for we do not make either of them." 
" I do not know," she said. " Now this," said I, " is what I want to 
tell you. I do one thing— I keep store, and the makers of all these 
things want my labor in store-keeping, and so we exchange with each 
other, and I get all these things by doing one thing. This doing only 
one business is called the division of labor, and the exchanging with 
each other is called pecuniary commerce ; pecuniary means relating to 
property. There are other kinds of commerce ; for when one talks 
with another, they exchange ideas with each other, and this might be 
called intellectual commerce, or the commerce of minds, such as we 
are carrying on at this moment. Then, there is another kind of com- 
merce, not so easy to explain ; it is the interchange of the feelings — 
for instance, if a person plays a piece of music for the gratification of I 
another, he conveys a feeling to that other, and this may be called the 
commerce of the feelings, or moral commerce ; these different kinds of 
commerce are often called the intercourse of society. This intercourse 



APPENDIX. Ill 

of society is at present conducted in the most confused, disorderly, un- 
principled manner, which produces all the sufferings of the poor, the 
anxieties of the rich, and misery in all conditions beyond any thing I 
can make you understand ; but you will see more as you grow older 
and come to read history. I am making it my only object in life, to 
try principles which I think can regulate this intercourse in such a 
manner as to prevent all this suffering; but my particular object with 
you now is, to begin to apply these principles here in our house be- 
tween ourselves, and you will see yourself benefited by them. 

" As it is now, you have seen that you are subject to be called on 
by me or your mother to do this or that at any and all times, however 
you may be engaged or interested, and that sometimes you do not 
come, or do not do what we require directly ; you do not feel the same 
interest in doing a thing for us, that you are not interested in, as you 
do in your own playthings ; but there is a necessity for performing a 
certain quantity of labor, in order that we may have playthings, and 
food to eat, clothes to wear, a house to live in, etc., because you 
know these things are all produced by labor, and if it were not that 
this labor is performed by somebody, we could not have them. I get 
them from those who make them, as I said, by buying and selling 
goods to them. You get them from me and your mother, and you do 
these little things we require of you, for the supplies you receive of us, 
although you did not know this was the case. It is so from necessity ; j 
because if you did not do some things for us, we should not even have 
time to get these things for you. Now, here is the great question : 
How much should you properly do for us for what you receive ? 
Should we require all your time night and day ? Would this be too 
much, or not enough ? Is there any limit, any bounds that we can set, in 
so that you may understand when your obligations to us are dis- 
charged, and you can feel yourself free to pursue your own objects 
without being interrupted by our unlimited claims and calls, and that 
we may feel free to require, knowing that you see and acknowledge its 
necessity ? Can you suggest any way to do this ?" " No, sir," said I 
she, " I cannot, but I should like it very much." " Well, then, I will 
tell you what I have thought ; that I would as soon buy and sell goods 
an hour as to wash dishes an hour ; so if you will wash as many dishes 
as I or your mother would wash in an hour, I should consider that 
you had paid us for an hour of our labor ; this would take vou more 
than hour, but no matter. Each of us, in our family, consume, under 
our present circumstances, about three hours of men's labor per day. 
You consume about so much of mine and your mother's labor or time. 
Now, how much of your time 'do you think you ought to work for us, i 
to do as much for us as we should do for ourselves in three hours ?" 



112 APPENDIX. 

S " I do not know," she replied, " but I am willing to do whatever you 
think I ought." " But," said I, "I want your own understanding 
and feelings to act in this ; I want the decision to come from your- 
self, from the clear perception that you are governed by the necessity 
of things, and not by me or your mother personally, and then all will 
go smoothly. But, as it is impossible for you to judge, suppose we say 
that six hours of your labor at present shall be considered an equiv- 

III alent for what you receive of us (' yes, sir'), and then, you know, we 
can change from time to time, and in order to show you that I take no 
advantage of your dependence on us, or your confidence in me, if you 

S can do better for yourself at any time, you have a right to do it ; I 
lay no claim to your person or time, hut the return for labor, which 
you see we must all have in order to live. And whenever you do not 
I do your part of this necessary labor, it is but reasonable to conclude 
that you cannot hav# the benefit of it, and your income or supplies 
must necessarily stop. And, remember, that this would not be done 
in anger, or for punishment, but, because if no labor was performed, 
there would be nothing to live upon, and they who do not do their 
share, must not expect to live on the labor of others." 

Even at this age she comprehended me, and seemed to feel the just- 

1 ice of her position. It then only remained to disconnect that portion 
of her time from the remainder, so that both parties might he free to 

HI act up to just limits, and not overstep them. We agreed that from 
between seven and nine, from twelve to two, and from five till seven, 

S should be the six hours of each day to be devoted to our work, and 
that all the rest of her time was to be entirely her own ; and if we re- 
quired her services during any of this time, we would make a contract 
with her as with any stranger, and pay her by the time employed, and 
the pay was to be absolutely her own, of which she was to be supreme 
sovereign disposer. If she chose to ask our advice, of course we would 
give it; but we should exercise no authority, nor even give advice 
unasked, and if she spent it inconsiderately, the consequences would 
show her the necessity of asking the advice of older friends. 

This arrangement was immediately carried into practice, and the 

VII beautifully harmonious efficacy of the practice can only be conceived 
by trial. No other arrrangement was necessary, and this was con- 
tinued, with but little variations, from that time forth. 
It will be seen, on a little trial, that children thus thrown upon 

30 themselves, begin to exercise all the self-preserving faculties ; they 
are interested in looking into consequences before they act, and will 
ask the advice of parents, and listen with interest to their injunctions, 
which, before, they would have shunned as unmeaning, tedious inflic- 
tions. 



APPENDIX. 113 

Under these circumstances, if we call children in the morning, it is 
for them, and not for us, w^ do it, as their supplies would stop if the 30 
contract was not fulfilled. If we advise them not to spend their mo- 
ney or time foolishly, it is for them, and not for us ; it is not our money 
or time they spend, and they can see that our advice is disinterested. 
Then, they listen and thank us for that which otherwise they would 
have considered an interested, selfish exercise of authority. If there 
is ever to be undisturbed harmony between parents and children, it VI1 
will be found where their interests and responsibilities are entirely 1 
individualized, disconnected from each other, where one exercises no 
power or authority over the persons, property, time, or responsibilities 
of the other. I speak from seventeen years' experiments, of which 
more will be said in the proper place, but will add here, that these 
principles can be only partially applied under the present mixture of 
the interests and responsibilities of parents and children — that where 
parents are obliged to bear the consequences of the child's acts, the 31 
parent must have the deciding power ; but in things in which the child 
can alone assume the cost of its acts, he may safely be intrusted to the 
natural government of consequences. 



A company who were conducting a school at Spring Hill, Ohio, let 
one of the boys try his own self-management with me ; and here com- 
menced one distinction — he was not under my authority, although he 
was guided by me ; I did not take him, any more than I took the Mayor 
of New York, when I went to do business with him. I made him un- 
derstand this at the beginning. I told him that I should never exer- 
cise any authority whatever, but that there were certain things which 
he wanted to learn, to prepare himself for future life, and that I had 
a particular way of teaching these ; that the company were willing he 
should try this mode if he was inclined to do so, but that he was free 
at any moment to place himself again under the direction and control 
of the company. My object was, among other things, to teach him to 
need no control from any one ; that he was to have all the proceeds of 
his own labor, pay his board to the company, exercise his own judg- 
ment or taste with regard to his clothing, pay for it himself, and do 
whatever he chose with his surplus time or property. He was between 
eleven and twelve years old. " Well, James, how do you like such a 
proposal ?" " I do not know," he said, " how to pay my board or earn 
my clothes." " Well, would you not like to learn how these things 
are done, so as to get experience against time of need ?" " Oh ! yes, 



114 APPENDIX. 

sir," said he, and his eyes brightened up. " Well, now, what do yon 
think should rationally be your first step ?"« He did not know. " Would 
it not be to do first, that which you want first? You will want dinner 
directly, and if you pay the company your board, you want to know 
what they want, don't you ? and then you have your pursuit marked 
out for you. This is what is called the demand." " Oh! yes," said 
he, " I see." " Well, now, in talking with the company, I perceived 
that they were more in want of shoes than any other thing ; now if 
you could supply this demand" — " Oh ! sir," said he in amazement, 
"it takes men to make shoes, I don't know how; I — I — I" — "My dear 
boy, you do not understand your own capacities ; I am going to show 
you what you can do ; wouldn't you like to have me ?" " Oh ! yes, 
sir," said he, "if you think I could." "I think you can," said 1, 
" and now let us see what is the first step : there must be tools, leather, 
a place to work in, and a teacher ; now which of these is wanted first ?" 

A He thought a moment, and then replied, "Why, the shop, I should 
think, if I had the things to put in it." '•' I have got tools that I will 
lend you," I said, " by your being responsible to me for their safe re- 
turn, and the company will find you leather. Now you want the 
shop, and there is that little building up there that is just fit for it; 
you had better go to the company and make some contract with them 
for the use of it." " I do not know," he said, " how to make a con- 
tract." " To learn to do every thing of the kind, constitutes your 
education, my dear child. You have only to go and ask them what 
rent they will ask you for the use of it ; they will not think it strange, 
I have talked with them, and they expect it." He went to one of the 
company, who told him that the wear of the building was not worth 
setting a price upon. The next thing was the leather, and this he must 
get of the company, and as he had no money to pay for it, he must keep 

29 an account of it. When he came to this, he said, with a deep blush, 
" I do not know how to keep accounts." " Don't blush, my dear boy, 

7 you have never been taught ; none of us know until we are taught, 
and it is not until we come to want these things that we know their 
value, and this is the reason why I am proceeding with you in this 

A manner. Now, as you do not know how to keep books, I wilt set a few 
examples, and after them, if you observe closely, you will be able to 
do it yourself." " But," said he, " I cannot write well enough." 

A " Then, you see what you want; and if you learn one thing after 
another, in the order in which you want it, you will get on with your 
education in the best possible manner, for you see that even now you 
want a knowledge of book-keeping, of writing, and arithmetic, all at 
once." " Yes, sir," said he, " and I will ask, who do you think I had 
better ask to teach me to write ?" " Mr. E., or Mr. F., either would do 



APPENDIX. 115 

it very well," I said. " I will try to learn right away," said he," in the 
evenings, when I am not at work." He now wanted the tools, and I 1 
told him that I should look to him for their safe return, and in order A 
to know when they were all returned, it would be necessary for him 
to give me a receipt for them. He did not know the form of receipts, ami 7 
when I wrote one, it was a new item in his education. He bashfully 
took the pen to sign it, when I said, " you need not feel mortified, my 
boy, for not knowing what you have never been in a situation to learn ; 
but, now you are in a situation, you will learn, I know. If you never 
before had to give a receipt, how could you give one ? It is by placing 
you in this situation, that you will learn those things and form those 
habits that will be necessary to you when you grow up, and you can- 
not begin too soon." 

Now, throughout all this process, he was as much sovereign of him- S 
self, and of all his interests as the Emperor of China. The ordinary re- 
lation of teacher and pupil was reversed — he was master, I was servant I 
— and he paid me for my services according to the time employed ; and 22 
yet, he would not take the least step either in business or amusement 32 
without my advice and approbation. Within two days from the first 
commencement, he had a pair of shoes on his feet, of his own make, 
that no one would have noticed as differing from ordinary work. He A 
continued in this business till the demand of the company for shoes 
was fully supplied, and then turned to another pursuit. 



My son, who is now about nineteen years of age,. has been more par- 
ticularly and continuously the subject of these experiments, which 
were commenced with him at the age of seven. The natural govern- 30 
ment of consequences has been uniformly substituted for the barbarous 
government of force — he has never in all his life been struck by either 
of his parents ; and, making a just allowance for all the counteracting 
examples and influences which have surrounded him on all sides, I am 
willing to have him considered one of the practical results of these 
principles applied to education. 

I give these facts in detail, in this undisguised manner, because facts 
in detail, given upon responsibility, are the only material that will 
now supply the demand of society. The public, having been so often 
misled by theories, now, very reasonably, call for practical results. 
I know that in giving these in this form, I subject myself to the charge \ 
of egotism from those who regard manner more than matter ; but, to 
hesitate, or remain silent on this account, would be less justifiable in 
my own eyes, than the most ridiculous egotism. 



116 APPENDIX. 

(B.) An accurate account of all the expenses of the family for 
ninety-five days, during the operation of the experimental store in 
Cincinnati, including clothing, wear of house and furniture, all re- 
duced to their labor cost, resulted in the average of one hour and 
forty minutes labor per day for each individual of the family. This 
estimate does not include housework, as this is so various under (lif- 
erent arrangements. In this estimate, flour was set at twenty hours' 
labor per bbl. ; chickens, an hour's labor each ; coffee, one hour 
per pound ; butter, one hour per pound ; milk, fifteen minutes' labor 
per quart ; beef, ten minutes' labor per pound ; six cords of wood and 
sawing, ninety-six hours ; sugar, forty minutes per pound. This esti- 
mate includes the ascertained labor cost of seventeen yards sheeting 
(forty-three hours), five pair of shoes, forty nine hours ; wear of house 
with four rooms, twenty hours — probably wear of clothing not specifi- 
ed, thirty hours. For expenses not enumerated, thirty hours. 



EXPLANATION OF THE LABOR NOTE 

" Not transferable." This condition is made a prominent feature 
in the labor note for various reasons : first, we do not propose, as a 
general practice, to deal on these new principles with those who do not 
understand or appreciate them, and it is necessary to inform such per- 
sons that the notes are not intended for them. Second, in the incipient, 
progressive stage, there will be those who would gladly get hold of the 
notes for no other purpose than to make trouble and embarrass the 
operations, instead of assisting them, and it is necessary for the giver 
of the note to have the means of protecting himself or herself against 
all such designs, which they can effectually do, by exercising their 
right of " sovereignty," and refusing to redeem the note in such hands ; 
while, at the same time, the same right of " sovereignty" would be 
equally exercised and vindicated by rising above and disregarding 
the condition, when the reasons which gave rise to it did not exist. 
To carry out this design it becomes necessary to leave the name of the 
receiver blank in the printed form, to be filled up at the time of the 
issue of the note. " One hour's labor in carpenter work, or twelve 
pounds of com." 

The twelve pounds of corn serves two purposes ; it shows the price 
which the giver of the note sets upon his labor, as compared with 
others, who may rate their labor at eight, ten, fifteen, or twenty 
pounds, according to the " cost" of it. Secondly, it gives the signer 



APPENDIX. 117 

of the note an alternative. In case it is not convenient for him to pay 
his note in carpenter work at the time required, he can pay it in an 
article which contains an equivalent of labor. An article that, being 
almost imperishable from year to year, he can keep on hand, and one 
that is likely to be alwaj's acceptable to the holder of the note ; be- 
cause it would not be an easy matter to over supply the demand, as it 
can be converted into milk, butter, cheese, beef, pork, poultry, eggs, 
and even exported in most of these forms to almost any part of the 
world to an indefinite extent. On these accounts, corn is an article 
peculiarly adapted to become the basis of a circulating medium ; 
whereas many other articles, even gold and silver, are liable to over 
or under supply the demand, and consequently work sudden and ruin- 
ous revolutions. The note is issued by each individual, in his individ- 
ual capacity, because combined interests include the elements of defeat, 
and destroy all responsibility. 



DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH. 



The picture of the future, to which these principles point, is so full 
of beauty and magnificence, that in our anxiety to realize such a life 
we are apt to overlook the distance between that and us, which must 
be traveled over step by step, through very rough and unforeseen ob- 
stacles. Among the greatest of these are the forces of habit and 
fashion. Habit is said to be "a second nature," and fashion is 
stronger than law. Many years might pass away before an American, 
placed among Frenchmen,, could so far overcome the habit of his own 
native tongue as not to be distinguished by it, with all his best efforts 
to aid him. Such being the force of one particular habit, what allow- 
ance must we not make for all the habits of previous life ! 

Fashion — more .tyrannical than tyranny itself ! How much intel- 
lectual effort, moral courage, time, and self-devotion are required to 
effect even a small revolution, in a power which controls all other con- 
trollable powers ! Therefore, in the outset, let us not overlook una- 
voidable obstacles, and thereby lay the foundation of disappointment 
and reaction by expecting too much. 



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Water-Cure Library; Embracing all of Im- 
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Water and Vegetable Diet in Scrofula, Can- 
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Water-Cure Manual; A Popular Work on 

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Wa*er-Cure Almanac, Containing much im- 
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Woman : Her Education and Influence. With 

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Water-Cure Journal and Herald of Reforms. 

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Water-Cure for Women in Pregnancy and 

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Water-Cure in Every Known Disease. By 

J. H. Rausse. Translated by C. H. Meeker, from the German, - - 50 

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